Totalitarian BetaFlight (TBF)

TBF Features

Frequency Switching – from at least TBF 4 (August 2025) the VTX frequency can be changed in flight^[15][17]. However, the supported range has widened over time and various TBF releases. In TBF 4 this was given as 100 MHz to 7.4 GHz^[17] whereas in TBF 8 it was given as 100 MHz to 12 GHz^[7].

Суицид (“Suicide Mode”) – from at least TBF 4 (August 2025), a "suicide mode" has been added as an anti-capture mode. If the drone detects the receiver is reprogrammed or a different one is soldered on, the flight controller will stop the motors and activate the servos after a short (configurable) amount of time^[12].

Altitude Hold and Position Hold - from at least TBF 4 (August 2025) TBF has included an automatic altitude-hold (by barometer) and automatic position-hold (by GPS) - although Rear claims the latter can still work under GPS spoofing, no details on how this is achieved are given^[17] - although it's possible that this was achieved using sensors such as LIDAR and optical flow, it's noted that support for these sensors was not added until TBF 7 and was later removed. Altitude Hold is explicitly called out as being used to allow control to be recovered once a drone has passed through a jamming zone^[20].

Optical Flow and Lidar (Removed) – Support for optical flow and sonar sensors was added in TBF 7^[30]. However, in TBF 8.1 (in approximately July 2026), support for optical flow sensors and lidar was removed^[27]. The reason stated by Rear was that the requirement was uncommon but they utilised a large amount of resources on the flight controller. It was noted that teams requiring these features could request a specific build from Rear directly.

Arming with a non-zero Throttle - from at least TBF 4 (August 2025) it was possible to arm a drone with a non-zero throttle and the drone will not disarm if the throttle is non-zero^[17]. This feature was presented in the context of protection for "Smart EW" which may attempt to disarm the drone during flight.^[13]

FAILSAFE Instant Exit – on standard BetaFlight builds when the control link drops and it is restored, the flight controller waits before returning control to the pilot, this delay is the failsafe_recovery_delay and is generally set to 500ms, although with RACE_PRO enabled it is set to 100ms^[28]. In TBF, since at least TBF 7.1 (October 2025), this has effectively been removed and there is no delay.^[11]

Черная штора (“Black Curtain”) – TBF has had a long standing "curtain" feature that masks the OSD and video signal to protect the takeoff location^[3][8]. This has been available since at least TBF 7.6 (December 2025) and was originally called "TBF HIDE VIDEO"^[23]. However, in TBF 8 (May 2026) this was expanded into the "Black Curtain" feature where it was possible to make portions of the screen fully black - this is configurable^[7].

Arming from a moving carrier - from at least TBF 7.6 (December 2025), TBF has allowed the drone to be armed whilst its carrier is in motion^[23]. Rear doesn't state why this is, but it could be reasonably conjectured that it is to allow launching from moving vehicles, a tactic that we have seen demonstrated -for example where the Russians launch FPV drones from other aerial platforms^[29].

Режим засады / приманки (“Ambush Mode”) – a common tactic after the introduction of fibre-optic drones, is for the drone to land and enters a waiting mode in order to ambush passing soldiers and vehicles^[31]. Since at least TBF 4 (August 2025) there has been a ждуна ("Waiter") mode^[12], however in TBF 8 (May 2026), a new Режим засады / приманки ("Ambush/Bait") mode is listed, although the specifics of how it works are not detailed.^[7][10] Although, in August 2026, reports of Zhdun (waiting drones) being fitted with microphones^[32] have started to emerge, in order to allow them to hide out of sight until a target enters the area - this feature could be related to that development, but the specifics of Ambush mode are not yet known. This section will be updated as when we learn more.

Второе касание (“Second touch”) – TBF allows for several methods for detonating a munition, including a remote warhead-arming mode, a TBF Buzzer initiation mode, and automatic warhead-initiation modes. One of those modes allows a drone to automatically detonate a munition if the drone is moved. It was publicly announced in May 2026 but was available in the software prior to that. A drone in "Second touch" mode is often called a “джонник” (Johnnik)^[6]. The term джонник was originally used to describe a type of mine initiator, fitted with a magnetometer and an accelerometer to detonate when it detect a targets magnetic signature or on movement^[33]; it seems this term is now being reused for drones with this type of initiator configuration.

TBF Antispoofing – TBF has protection against “умный РЭБ” (“Smart electronic warfare”). One noted feature of Smart EW is that it can cause the drone to disarm during flight^[5][9]. Therefore TBF has developed and improved their protection over time. With disarm protection being added in at least TBF 5 (August 2025) and disarm detection being added in TBF 7.7 (December 2025)^[24], to warn the pilot when the flight controller detects electronic warfare operating. This was further improved again with Antispoofing protection^[5] coming in at least TBF 7.9, to protect against not only unauthorised disarm commands but also unauthorised pitch/roll/yaw commands.

Обратный отсчет (“Countdown”) – TBF has a feature that prevents munitions from being activated until a certain flight time has elapsed, as a safety interlock. Until the countdown ends, no current can be applied to the “площадку” (“Platform”)^[2]. This was modified in TBF 8.2 to allow the countdown timer to be configured, including down to zero seconds which effectively disables the initiation mode entirely.

Multidrone - On the 15 August 2026, Rear announced that the team were working on a new flight mode: “Multidrone” for TBF 8.2^[1]. Which was described as the ability to control multiple drones from a single GCS. It was noted in July 2026 that “it already works but it’s ugly”^[27].

Multi-receiver Support - Another planned feature for TBF 8.2 is support for multiple receivers^[27].

Перевоспитан (“Re-educated”) – Not a feature of TBF but certainly a tactic used by that team: there are several instances of Rear noting that Ukrainian strike drones have been flashed with TBF, a process they call “re-educating”. For example in July 2026 it was noted that a Karma F405 and a Vyriy F4v4 were flashed with TBF 8.1.^[4] These flight controllers are domestically produced Ukrainian flight controllers.