Sinéad Baker
Russia and Ukraine are desperately trying to stop each others' drones using electronic warfare.
Soldiers sometimes accidentally jam their own sides' drones if they're on the same frequency.
There are so many drones that soldiers can be confused about which side they belong to.
With too many drones in the air and only so many radio frequencies, Ukrainian soldiers sometimes accidentally jam their own drones trying to stop Russian ones, Business Insider learned.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces who has operated strike and reconnaissance drones, told Business Insider that his unit was recently the victim of friendly electronic warfare, or just EW.
He said it's something that often happens with the big reconnaissance drones that both sides use because many of Ukraine's drones "use the same frequencies that enemy drones use." That's been the case, for instance, with Russia's Zala recon and strike drones and Ukraine's Shark reconnaissance drones.
"When friendly EW tries to jam Zala, it also jams Shark," he said.
Ukraine uses the Shark to identify targets that other Ukrainian weaponry can then destroy, including Russian artillery convoys, and Russia uses its Zala to identify Ukrainian targets and attack Ukrainian assets like tanks and artillery.
The Shark drone is developed by Ukrainian company Ukrspecsystems, and its newest version has a range of 260 miles, while the Zala is made by Russia's Zala Aero.
The huge volume of drones used in Russia's invasion of Ukraine has resulted in an electronic warfare battle, with jamming and more flooding frequencies with noise, cutting connections, and confusing enemy drones, frustrating operators attempting to use them for strikes and surveillance. It's fueled new developments in EW, as well as efforts to get around electronic warfare, such as fiber-optic drones and AI-enabled systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment