Why Analog Video Transmission Persists in Military FPV Drones:

AbstractThe widespread deployment of First-Person View (FPV) drones in modern armed conflicts has revealed a counterintuitive technological trend: the continued dominance of analog video transmission systems over digital alternatives. While digital systems provide superior image quality and encryption, most military FPV drones prioritize analog transmission. This paper presents an applied technical analysis explaining this phenomenon from an operational military perspective. The study evaluates latency, degradation behavior, electronic warfare (EW) resilience, bandwidth efficiency, power consumption, and battlefield reliability. The results demonstrate that analog transmission aligns more effectively with tactical FPV requirements, particularly in high-interference, short-duration, and expendable drone missions. The findings suggest that the persistence of analog systems is not technological stagnation but a deliberate optimization for contested electromagnetic environments.