Dude the view from the drone going after the boat was nuts. So much static the lower altitude you go. They were just riding on pure skill and muscle memory for the last 5 seconds there. Crazy skills.
I assume that this is because it's transmitting directly to the operator's station, and cutting altitude is letting obstructions get in the way.
Given that Ukraine clearly has a second drone watching, I wonder how hard it would be to permit the hovering drone watching act as a relay, at least for the final approach.
Yeah, exactly. Video signals from drones have a hard time getting through even a grove of trees if it is at a distance. You could bump up the video transmitter power, which would help to an extent. Line if sight, without any obstacles, you can go miles on a 1W transmitter.
Signal relays/amplifiers do exist, but I'm not sure if you could fit one on a regular sized DJI drone, which is probably the kind they are using to watch.
The main problem would be latency. The video link is the only feedback the pilot gets from the drone, and the pilot is the only control input for the drone (i.e. no assistance, like you get on dji / gps drones). Adding another ~20-50ms of latency in the video link will make things much harder for the pilot.