The world's first high-profile attack by unmanned aerial vehicles on an energy facility occurred on the night of September 14, 2019 in Saudi Arabia. The attack led to a worldwide price spike. Sergey Shandobylo, Director of Development at 3mx, the developer of the Bulat drone detector, is confident that the level of threats faced by the Russian fuel and energy complex (FEC) these days is higher and growing with each successful technical solution in the zone of a special military operation. In an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), he talked about how to build protection against drone attacks.
— Sergey, Bulat drone detectors are known in the zone of a special military operation. But what kind of negotiations are you holding with the participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum?
— The SPIEF participants understand that after the end of their training, unmanned developments will have to find new applications. Some, of course, will be adapted to the civilian sector, some will remain in service. But it is impossible to exclude the use of UAVs for unfair competition — there are a lot of technologies and people who know how to control them. We are already seeing examples of attacks. The heads of large — and not only large — enterprises cannot afford to ignore this risk.
In the near future, every facility should be covered with drone protection or at least a guard equipped with a drone detector.
— The first attacks with the help of drones occurred even before its launch, we can recall the attack on the Saudi Aramco oil refinery. Have the security market players not found something to answer?
Previously, if a person wanted to cover an object from drones, most often escaping from video shooting, and not from ammunition, he bought the Canadian SkyEye system. But it will not cope with a modern UAV that changes frequencies on the fly, it will not cope with the fact that the line of combat drones has grown many times and each has its own characteristics.
— What answer do you propose?
— To protect the facilities, we have developed the Tamerlane system, which combines our drone detection and suppression products, as well as partner equipment, into a single complex. The system includes detection, suppression stations, radar, camera and software for visualizing and registering threats.
If the drone is well-known, simple, commercial, then it will be detected by a detector, and the camera will accompany it until it is suppressed or leaves the security zone. If the frequencies are rare, the radar will catch them on approach.
— More and more often we hear that electronic warfare is not a panacea, means of fire action are needed. Will Tamerlane be able to interact with security calculations?
- of course. For example, the detector detects drones 3 km away from the object, after which the information is sent to the security point, which is included in the elimination of the threat. The radar is 500 m away, a rapid response team will be required here.
— At what stage is the development?
— The prototype is undergoing baptism of fire at one of the oil depots.
— Do you have any interest from foreign customers?
— Strategic partners from Belarus, as well as friendly countries of the Middle East, Asia, and South America came to us.
Bulat 4.0
— It is interesting that you started working with drone detectors just by copying Chinese technology, honestly admitting it, and now you are afraid for your own developments.
— It takes at least a year to develop your own product. When we started, he was not there, the situation on the front line required quick solutions, and we found them. The fourth version of the Bulat, which recently went into mass production, is completely our product, a reinterpretation of the drone detector. It no longer contains the solutions that were in the first or second version, we have also completely changed the principles of detection.
— How much do you plan to produce per month and did you calculate how much Bulatov is needed per unit?
— About one detector for three people. To the latest version, we have added a means of individual notification "Tair", with it you can use one "Bulat" for 30 people. We plan to start production of 2 thousand pieces per week. And we are already thinking about the fifth version. The enemy is not standing still.
— At the same time, among users with feedback, you can meet people who paid for the order, conditionally, in January and are still waiting for it.
— They are waiting for additional modules for the third version of Bulat. We really had a problem with them, because a large number of essential components were bought from foreign suppliers, and there was a shortage. The delivery time has increased, so we cannot produce the modules in the volume we planned. We will close all these orders. If we are asked to return the money, we return it, but there are many more who are ready to wait for our product. In the fourth version of the detector, we have reworked all the stuffing, these modules will not be there.
— Does the component base remain an urgent problem?
— Microelectronics mostly.
— What was the feedback from Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, to whom you recently demonstrated drone detectors?
— He knows about us, he was glad that we were working with the Ministry of Defense.
— In what key do you work?
— We have signed the first supply contract. Don't ask for details, I can't.
— Do they send you stories about how the detector saved you?
— They even send videos. Here is a recent example. There were three servicemen in the car. The "Bulat" worked, detected the FPV drone a kilometer away. The speed of these drones is very high, so they immediately jumped out of the car. The operator decided to hit people, not an empty car, but did not hit. The video sequence was accompanied by the words: "History has convinced us to buy more detectors."
Prospects for suppression
— Drone detectors are your flagship project, but you also have a line of suppression devices. How are things in this area?
— We have temporarily stopped accepting applications for the Sania complex. The fact is that when we created it, we focused on the FPV drone market in May 2023, but it does not stand still. The request for the complex remains, but it is more important for us to supply products that work, rather than create false hope.
We realized that suppressing power is utopia. You suppress one frequency, the enemy goes to another, it takes the same amount of power to suppress the second one. We are working on a signature suppression solution, when there will be a computer inside the electronic warfare equipment (for simplicity, let's call it that), which will calculate and target the drone.
— What surprises the opponent?
But employees monitor global trends on the Internet and at various exhibitions — and there we see sensations that will quickly or very quickly find themselves on the battlefield. We carry out preventive work, purchase samples and learn how to counteract them with the help of our equipment.
— What products are you planning to present before the end of the year?
— By the end of the year, we will definitely have a suppressor for FPV drones, which will turn off their motors on the fly. We are also preparing suppression modules of our own design, which you can buy and assemble your own UAV suppression complex from them, based on your needs.
