Drones, robots and Lyman: Simon Newton unpacks Op Vivaldi
An uncrewed Royal Navy submarine's first heavy torpedo and a Canadian rifle also ran past ten times BFBS Forces News' usual start on the same day.
BFBS Forces NewsStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 88,081 views a day, 16 times a normal first day on this channel (5,376).
Op Vivaldi: Inside the offensive shattering Putin's plans
Twenty-three hours after it went up, Simon Newton's explainer on Operation Vivaldi had drawn more than 86,000 views. A regular video on BFBS Forces News usually finds a little over 5,000 on its first day, so this one opened about sixteen times faster.
The subject is Ukraine's counteroffensive near Lyman. According to the description, it pushed back Russian forces trying to work around the fortified cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Lyman is a familiar name in this war: Ukraine took the town back once before, in the autumn of 2022. The new operation, in the video's telling, combines drone strikes, robotic ground vehicles and attacks on Russian supply lines. Ukraine says it has retaken 176 square kilometers. The title goes further and bills it as the offensive "shattering Putin's plans." Newton walks through how the operation unfolded, why Lyman matters, and what it could mean for the Donbas as another winter approaches.
The comment section is full of maps and math. Viewers debate whether Russia can really mobilize the 300,000 troops the piece weighs. Others discuss a reported push back across the Zherebets river. One asks for future maps to mark where the prewar border ran, because the claims of ground won and lost are hard to follow.
The British side of the channel had a strong day too. The Royal Navy's XV Excalibur is a 12-meter uncrewed submarine, and it fired a US Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo for the first time, off Kyle of Lochalsh in northwest Scotland. That clip passed 40,000 views in half a day. A first look at Colt Canada's C25 rifle followed close behind. The description raises the question every British Army watcher is asking: could it be the one to replace the SA80?
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- Channel
- BFBS Forces News
- Subscribers
- 1,070,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 396,601 (on a normal day: 491,658)
- Video published
- October 1, 2026
- Video views so far
- 86,322 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 88,081
The numbers
Three videos posted on the same day, and the Ukraine explainer opened well ahead of the other two.
💡 Test your knowledge
Kyle of Lochalsh, where the Excalibur submarine fired its torpedo, is linked by a road bridge to which Scottish island?
The Skye Bridge, opened in 1995, crosses from Kyle of Lochalsh to the Isle of Skye.
