Drone warfare in Ukraine: Russia's fiber-optic drone swarms and wooden warheads
Three key stories of the week. Part 2. Russia
Rapid innovations in Ukraine’s defense sector force Russia to come up with new solutions in unmanned technologies. While some of these solutions may seem crude, they still serve Russia’s objectives. Other times, they are hyped as sophisticated but are quickly neutralized by Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Many Ukrainian officials now admit that just a couple of years ago, they didn’t fully appreciate the potential of fiber-optic drones, yet these drones have become one of their major concerns on the battlefield. Russia has rapidly adopted their use, and its close collaboration with China has enabled the scaling up of their production.
As promised, here is the second (and much shorter) part of my Drone Warfare in Ukraine, published earlier this week. This experimental issue focuses on Russian technologies and innovations, featuring brief stories. Let me know if you would be interested in similar editions in the future.
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Russia deploys Shahed drone with a wooden block in place of a warhead. According to radio technology specialist Serhiy Beskrestnov, known as Serhiy Flash, the drone was equipped with a newly designed 16-element antenna. In his analysis of the device, Beskrestnov indicated that the antenna was likely intended to test resistance to Ukrainian electronic warfare tactics, which have been effective at disrupting or faking satellite navigation data. He added that the wooden block may have been used to lighten the drone, extending its flight time and allowing it to travel deeper into Ukrainian territory to assess the antenna’s performance under real-world electronic countermeasure conditions.
Last week, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a Russian Merlin-VR reconnaissance UAV on the Lyman direction. The Merlin-VR is one of the most expensive Russian drones, with a cost exceeding 300 thousand dollars. According to Russian authorities, this reconnaissance drone can reach an altitude of up to 5 km, stay in the air for up to 10 hours, and fly distances of up to 600 km. This is an experimental UAV that has not yet been adopted for service. According to Defense Express, the use of this drone may indicate a shortage of standard reconnaissance tools or the inability to deploy them due to vulnerabilities and the effective actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Russia is ahead of Ukraine in the production of fiber-optic drones, as China remains the main supplier of the necessary cable.