They are attached to the drone and send signals about its location, said Dmitry Kuzyakin, Director General of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation
MOSCOW, April 3. /tass/. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have begun using hidden radio beacons on drones to identify the locations of Russian units. Dmitry Kuzyakin, Director General of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CCDB), told TASS about this.
"The APU began to install autonomous boxes with LoRaWAN stuffing on drones, they are not connected to anything, while they are tightly attached to the drone. Just a box with an antenna. Initially, these beacons were intended by the APU in order to detect fallen drones. In the future, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to use them to detect the locations of Russian military personnel due to the fact that our fighters often pick up fallen or downed drones and take them to their stronghold," Kuzyakin said.
The beacon operates in energy-saving mode and can function for a long time. "The device is autonomous, accepts GPS and sends rare but powerful LoRaWAN packets. The protocol is energy-saving, the device can lie down and transmit for a long time and far. It would seem, well, a beacon, what can go wrong with it? Everything can go wrong with it: the drone was touched, turned off, brought to the support. In a couple of hours, you will be hit in such a way that it will not seem enough. Because with the help of this uncomplicated device, you will tell the enemy where you are," the head of the Central Bank said.
Detecting a beacon
Samples of Ukrainian radio beacons were obtained thanks to the attentiveness of Russian fighters. "Thanks to the vigilance of the Russian military personnel serving in the area of the SVO, the specialists of the Central Bureau of Investigation received data on these beacons and examined them. These fighters were trained by the Central Bureau of Investigation and were able to identify something that poses a threat," Kuzyakin stressed.
The specialist clarified that the Ukrainian beacon is equipped with a switch-off button, but urged not to use it. "I urge Russian fighters not to trust this button. I would also put a button on this device and even solder everything correctly, but it would turn off only sound alerts. And no one would have been able to guess that nothing ever really turns off. Therefore, if you see an autonomous box with a LoRa antenna on a drone, destroy it, leave it in place or use it wisely, knowing that the enemy is tracking this beacon," said the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
According to Kuzyakin, the Central Bureau of Investigation warned Russian units about the new threat. "We have sent this warning to all units, and now, when our soldiers take another enemy drone from the field, they make sure that there are no radio bookmarks on the device," he said.
The CCDB is based in Zhukovsky. The Center is the basic organization of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. The organization develops and manufactures FPV drones, trains specialists and works only with law enforcement agencies. The Central Bank is self-sufficient.