Russia and Ukraine are also fighting for the upper hand in Ukrainian airspace with drones. Ukraine is in danger of falling behind. But Kyiv has a strategy.
There was a lot of movement in the sky over Russia on Wednesday night. Dozens of drones flew from Ukraine towards the neighboring country. Already in the morning, Russia reported that it had allegedly intercepted 58 of the aircraft. But some did hit their target: at least one drone hit the Ryazan oil refinery 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow. The facility caught fire and several people were injured.
As spectacular and widely noticed as drone operations abroad are, drones are used much more often directly on the front lines in Ukraine. They now play a special role there. Kristen D. Thompson, a US Air Force expert, writes for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think tank: “This conflict has demonstrated the battlefield advantages of drones, which are smaller, deadlier, easier to operate and available to almost everyone are.”
Given this, Ukraine and Russia are engaged in an arms race. The weapons have become indispensable for both sides. It’s no longer just about developing new types of drones, but also about how to make enemy drones as harmless as possible. This is called electronic warfare. And Ukraine risks falling behind in this important area.
The tide in drone warfare is turning
For a long time, Ukraine successfully used drones to compensate for a lack of capacity for air strikes or a shortage of artillery ammunition. But now the tide is turning, the New York Times reports on drone warfare: “Electronic countermeasures have become one of the Russian military’s most powerful weapons after years of honing their capabilities.”
Drones have become an integral part of war. On the one hand, the unmanned military vehicles fulfill important non-offensive tasks. They enable the troops of both sides to conduct almost complete reconnaissance of the front; They can help clear landmines or bring essential supplies such as first aid kits or ammunition to where the fighting is particularly fierce.
But drones just as often bring death on the battlefield in Ukraine. Loaded with explosives, pilots can steer them directly into targets, where they then explode. Other drones are designed to drop explosive charges, so they do not directly self-destruct. The more developed systems are even capable of firing smaller rockets at their targets. In addition to the well-known unmanned aircraft, drones are also used on land and water. Ukrainian naval drones have already inflicted serious blows on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Here you can read more about it.
Ukraine’s capabilities are reaching their limits
Ukraine particularly relies on commercially available drones, which it converts for its own purposes. They are usually controlled from the first person perspective using special glasses; they are called FPV drones (First Person View, English for first person perspective; editor’s note). These drones have the advantage that they are relatively readily available and inexpensive to purchase.
However, their commercial availability is also a major disadvantage: “FPV drones fly on an analog frequency, and since many of them are purchased in stores, they are already set to the same frequency when they are delivered,” writes the New York Times. So the Ukrainian soldiers would have to know how to program to change the frequency in the drone’s software. However, Russian jammers are causing them even more trouble.
Russia has long since adjusted to the Ukrainian drone swarms. The Kremlin troops are increasingly succeeding in “jamming” – i.e. disrupting – Ukraine’s aircraft. The pilots then lose connection to their drones and can no longer control them. Sometimes the Russians manage to bring down the drones just a few meters from their target.
