Devices have been developed for the destruction of air and sea targets
During a special military operation, it became clear that a kind of revolution is taking place in modern warfare — the use of drones is playing an increasingly important role and changing the very nature of combined arms combat. And in conditions when the armed forces use drones against traditional branches of the armed forces, the question of using drones to destroy other drones naturally arises. Izvestia investigated which devices and how they are used today in the war of drones against drones.
Types of drones
To begin with, it is worth determining which drones it is advisable to fight using unmanned equipment. Flying machines have become the most popular today. Starting from small-sized FPV drones and up to heavy bombers, reconnaissance and kamikaze drones of tactical and long-range range. The peculiarity of the first is that they have high maneuverability, but low engine power — it is difficult to get into such a drone, but it is easy to shoot it down. Larger and heavier vehicles are easier to detect, but more difficult to destroy — sometimes it is difficult to catch up with another drone and it is not always possible to destroy it simply with a battering ram. With larger ones, which are comparable in size to conventional aircraft, helicopters and cruise missiles, regular air defense systems can effectively fight.
Military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Korotaev
Marine drones today are represented by relatively small-sized glider-fireboats and underwater drones. Modern torpedo systems can fight the latter, which can fight not only ships and submarines, but also torpedoes and underwater uninhabited vehicles. To combat high-speed surface drones, it is quite possible to create appropriate fighter drones.
Finally, ground-based drones, which are not yet so widely used, also require attention. With their development and the expansion of their fields of application, they will also need to be combated. And here, of course, the experience of the drone war against drones will be useful and will be used.
In the air
The idea to shoot down flying drones with the help of other drones arose before its launch — back in 2019, one of the world's first interceptor drones was presented at the MAI Design Bureau. The highly maneuverable aircraft-like flying machine takes off and lands like a quadcopter and is equipped with an automatic 12-caliber carbine, created on the basis of the smoothbore carbine "Boar-12 Hammer". The aerodynamic scheme of the "duck", weight 23 kg, flight duration up to 40 minutes and a unique stabilization system in the air when aiming.
The APU uses heavy hexacopters "Baba Yaga", which actually perform the role of drone bombers. Russian frontline craftsmen have learned how to remake conventional FPV drones to combat these heavy vehicles. The launch supports of the UAV are being upgraded by installing longer steel tubes that can destroy the Baba Yaga propellers - the interceptor drone comes from above and destroys the propeller of the device, it loses stability and falls. You can also simply hit a large target with a regular FPV drone charge. It remains only to solve the issue of detecting and targeting the calculations of drones that are able to organize such a hunt.
Military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of the calculation of the drone
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Another sample of an interceptor drone was created by Altai scouts for their own - a device that can drop a grid on an enemy drone. The mesh prevents the screws from working and it falls off. There is only one problem — the difficulty of aiming at a vehicle moving at high speed. But this method works quite effectively with suspended objects. Another and more advanced option is to capture enemy drones with a network. This can be done by a larger, heavier drone. Such experimental machines have already been used in the area of the SVO in March this year. A hunter drone hovers over an enemy vehicle, shoots it with a net on a cable and carries away the entangled enemy drone for subsequent disposal.
On the sea
As for the fight against marine drones, the use of helicopters has become a fairly effective method of fighting. Relatively light and poorly armored naval fire ships can be machine-gunned from the air. It is safe and effective. And here unmanned helicopters can come to the aid of manned helicopters. Moreover, such devices can be based on almost any size of ships, boats and, of course, in naval bases.
At the recent HeliRussia-2024 exhibition in Moscow, the Hunter reconnaissance and strike complex developed by the Unmanned Helicopters Design Bureau from Belarus was presented. It includes two unmanned helicopters, a ground control station, a flight support station and two transport platforms. Each helicopter is armed with a turret with a 7.62mm machine gun and two launchers with 8 unguided missiles each. In addition, the helicopter can carry 16 anti-tank bombs. The take–off weight of the device is 750 kg, and the payload weight is 200 kg. The helicopter can stay in the air for 6 hours and can operate at a range of up to 150 km from the launch point. The peculiarity of the development is that it is based on the experience of creating existing models of unmanned helicopters, which are used not only in Belarus, but also supplied to 20 foreign countries. Of course, these kind of helicopter drones are not disposable means of destroying attacking drones. And, by the way, the Hunter complex can be used not only against naval targets, but also against land objects, as well as against low-speed aircraft.
Belarusian reconnaissance and attack unmanned helicopter Hunter
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
If we talk about the simplest solutions, then a high-speed and maneuverable FPV drone can in principle be used to combat kamikaze drones, reconnaissance drones and conventional aircraft converted into drones. Their flight speed allows attacks of such devices to be carried out in a limited radius — for example, when protecting and defending some area objects in situations where it is not possible to place conventional air defense systems on the object. And such means will be much cheaper than a high-tech anti-aircraft missile.
Earlier, Izvestia reported that the Joker-10 FPV drone was upgraded for air defense purposes. A pipe is installed on it from false thermal targets of aircraft, but instead of a high-temperature mass, it is filled with explosives and damaging elements. When fired, a cloud of fragments is formed, which knocks down the enemy's UAV.
Dmitry Kornev
