11 Comments
User's avatar
Mark Shields's avatar

Missing from the list is the best defense: destroy the manufacturing sources of the munitions and launch platforms

JG's avatar

This is excellent Olena, thank you for this 👍

Georgette's avatar

I hope that someday Ukraine will be working closely with Canada to rebuild our military🇨🇦🇺🇦💙💛

Antti Ruokonen's avatar

Thank you for an excellent article. Will share and recommend.

Carol Ann Power's avatar

I wish people especially scientists and that is my original calling, would invent solutions to peace not more war machine.

These are like those buzz bombs of Hitler over England in World War Two 💔🇺🇦

HoldingTheLine(HTL)'s avatar

When will a so-called ally of Ukraine provide offensive weapons? Ukraine knows what it needs. It has been asking since 2014 when the demon Russian occupier sent their little green men into Crimea. Are the multiple "Security Cooperation Agreements" strictly for defensive materiel?

BJ Zamora's avatar

I wonder what fireworks would do to those drones. Disrupt them? Cause them to explode?

Please ask your knowledgeable engineers to consider fireworks as a cheap option.

Guy's avatar

My brain dump on Reducing the Shaheds

Options for cheap destruction

The Shahed

Delta wing made of fibreglass, possibly with carbon fibre

Turbojet or turboprop engine

Attacking the Wing - Outline

WW2 balloons prevented dive bombing by multiple cable that would cut an aircrafts wings wings

Shaheds fly at c 500kmh with a fragile and flammable wing material.

Aim is to use a ‘cheese wire’ to slice off, or at least into, the wing bringing the Shahed down where it can do minimal harm

Suggested wire is Razor wire used in security installations

Delivery by suspending it from a Gyrocopter drone to allow longes loitering.

Attacking the Wing - Cheese wire

The wings of the Shahed are fibreglass or carbon fibre.

There are no struts or metallic parts needed to support them

At usual delivery speed any solid item will materially impact but a thin, strong, vertical steel wire would slice through.

The wire would deform and wrap itself around the wing structure causing flight instability

The winds would cause it to vibrate enhancing the cutting action

5m is long enough as well to allow it, folded double, to reach and damage the propeller

Attacking the Wing - delivery

Ideally a curtain of wires would be put in the path of the incoming Shaheds

Incoming Shaheds are already tracked from source and their path to a city can be identified early on.

Dispersion is not wide

Need a loitering drone cloud each with 3-4 hours minimum flight time carrying or dragging a 50m wire

Need to be able to shift location at medium speed

Using a Gyrocopter based drone allows for the long dwell time and stability required

Attacking the Wing - Gyrocopters

Reasonable dwell time

Good at all weather

Example 1 – TF-G1

Can carry 5kg – 6m of razor wire

Use a thin thread to hold the wire to the drone so that it will break when encountering a target

Attacking the Wing - Coverage

Need a fleet of drones to cover a width and height

Attacking the Engine - Outline

Sycamore seeds use a simple wing and counterweight to disperse and drift slowly to the ground

Turboprop engines are vulnerable to small objects taken in through the air intakes

Create artificial plastic wings counterbalanced with a 3-5mm ball bearing modelled on a sycamore seed

Use a canister the size of a drinks can that is lightly held together to hold c100

Drop from a drone ahead of incoming Shahed