Got it, NO encrypted copies retained when power removed. Use of heartbeat and length of interval before removing power up to the (US) security authorities authorizing testing of WARMs by Ukraine.
@elfm I will come back later to your comment re organic integral drones and close support requiring intimately working together in same unit.
What I was intending at the semi-static front lines and hope to achieve is greater availability of effective drone support at the lowest possible level without any delays for higher level approval and coordination. So I will have to work on that and write a better account later.
Meanwhile, suppose some drones with their operators, launch teams etc are organically integral to a Company, Platoon or bellow at the infantry/artillery front line for the reasons you mention.
When a larger maneuver force at battalion or brigade level is being put together for a maneuver operation with its accompanying SPGs and APC/IFV squads and drones I would assume that some of the SPGs and infantry squads would be detached from their frontline battalion/brigade and attached to the maneuver force for that operation. More of both would be needed for the operation than are permanently assigned as organic to the maneuver force.
Then they get attached to the new front line that has been moved as a result of successful maneuver operation while the maneuver forces may travel to some other area of operations entirely (eg forces did shift between Kherson and Kharkiv quite rapidly).
In addition to attaching the drone forces that are organic to the SPG and infantry squads that get temporarily attached to the maneuver force for the operation I would assume additional drone forces that are not organic to either the maneuver force or its other attachments would be needed.
That is because I expect a shift from talk about “drones everywhere” to the reality of far more drones per tank during an intense maneuver operation than are envisaged in any previous use of drones before Ukraine.
That is because they could do far more thorough screening than dismounted infantry plus far more laser guidance of longer range indirect fire than was previously feasible. This requires more drones.
If so, then I assume some drones that were organic to units that did not get attached to the maneuver operation would have to be detached from them and temporarily attached to the maneuver force for the operation.
When there is no intense maneuver operation going on that briefly requires drone saturation they would be attached to front line units again, but quite possibly different front line units at the new location.
Are you comfortable with that?
Otherwise it would seem they have to be organic to the maneuver battalion or brigade despite not being needed in such density most of the time. They should be available for the usual ISTAR roles along the front line rather than just “travelling” with the maneuver force shifting to a different operation?
There is always a shortage of everything.
If drone support services are available to both the maneuver forces and front line infantry/artillery then I assumed they would be apportioned from above both, like air apportionment. This would vary from time to time and would often be related to their primary role for artillery ISTAR and other close support to front line. But it would sometimes be varied to increase the apportionment to a maneuver force for a particular operation at the expense of other work, without dedicating more of them to that maneuver force than actually need to be organic to it.