1/ "Drones made of plastic foam or plastic are harder to find on radar. Ukraine buys them from commercial suppliers, along with parts such as radios, cameras, antennas and motors. The drone units mix and match parts until they find combinations that can fly past sophisticated Russian air defenses." nytimes.com
2/ "Operators also switch between frequencies mid-flight or fly close to the ground to evade Russian units trying to track them. Unlike some military drones, Ukraine’s simpler versions fly without GPS navigation, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage; without it, pilots and their navigators instead must rely on landmarks on the ground such as buildings, roads or intersections to find their way."
3/ "Ukraine’s teams said that they preferred flying multiple missions with cheap drones, knowing they would lose some, rather than spending more for small advantages on any particular type of drone. We use cheaper wings."
4/ “The doctrine of war is changing,” said Pvt. Yevhen Popov, the commander of a national police unit fighting in one of the bulges. “Drones that cost hundreds of dollars are destroying machines costing millions of dollars,” he added."
5/ "Gremlin called out way points, altitudes and headings. Hacker flew hugging the landscape, below Russian jamming signals and above the sweeping, dense minefields that have thwarted the advance of Ukraine’s infantry and armored vehicles, gravely wounding soldiers each day."
6/ "Even as they hunt the Russians, though, they are being pursued by enemy drone teams themselves. Russian drones regularly overfly the positions of drone reconnaissance units, a few hundred yards up, and pilots are a priority target."
7/ "Through the summer, Lieutenant Arutiunian’s pilots lost a dozen drones that were blinded by jamming or shot down. Improvising on the fly, they tweaked their equipment, flight paths and frequencies with each loss."
8/ "A day earlier, Hacker had flown his plastic-foam plane and its GoPro camera directly over two of Russia’s most sophisticated electronic warfare systems, a Moskva-1 and Borisoglebsky. Each could scan for radio signals and triangulate their source, but both missed Hacker’s drone and its radio signal until it was too late. Lieutenant Arutiunian said he was able to quickly call in an artillery attack that destroyed both systems."
9/ "The solution his teams have created — using drones with few metal parts and frequently shifting radio frequencies — will most likely work for a few weeks, before Russian forces make their own adjustments and find a way to jam the signals or shoot down the Ukrainian drones. Meanwhile... we are already working on something else.”
10/ Great reporting by @AndrewKramerNYT and @lynseyaddario on how quickly Ukrainian drone forces can adjust their tactics and procedures to deal with a constantly evolving Russian CUAS and drone threat.
11/ A key elements in the article is a low cost UAV solution that allows for immediate adjustments in tactics and technologies. But as the authors state, the adversary also can adapt just as quickly. The key is to stay one step ahead.
Loading suggestions...