Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new type of air combat between drones is taking place in the sky, along with clashes on the ground.

In October, a video surfaced on social media showing a Ukrainian drone ramming into a Russian one and shooting it down. This was the first recorded dogfight between unmanned aerial vehicles.

Since then, the Ukrainian military has released more videos of drone attacks on drones. Russian drones are also attacking Ukrainian ones, although there is less information about these strikes.

How do drone dogfights work and what impact can they have?

Both Russia and Ukraine make extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence gathering, reconnaissance and guidance of ground artillery forces.

Russia has repeatedly attacked the energy system of Ukraine with the help of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones purchased from Iran. But there are far fewer large military drones than many cheaper models.such as remote controlled quadcopters that turn into improvised bombers.

Destroying enemy drones is critical but can prove difficult. Interference sets (which disrupt communication between pilot and drone) are limited and this strategy is often not applied to allow friendly drones to move in the same airspace.

Small drones are hard to spot and even harder to shoot down. Removing them is also costly. since one Patriot or Nasams air defense missile can cost $ 1 million or more. Drone dogfights are an alternative method of attack that costs “only” a few thousand dollars at a time.

The first Ukrainian attacks on Russian drones were “manual”, operators who remotely controlled drones, “chasing” the enemy in order to hit them in any way possible.

But now the Ukrainians have optimized their technique: drones have screws on top, and cameras are directed downwards. When diving from above, attacking drones use “blind zones”, catching the enemy by surprise. A blow to the rotor will usually break at least one blade, causing the drone to fall to the ground, leaving the attacking quadcopter largely undamaged.

However, the warring parties sometimes experiment with more original approaches: in a video circulated on social media on December 2, a Russian drone is seen dropping a grenade on a Ukrainian one. The grenade does not explode, but breaks the main rotor blade and knocks out the target.

Drone dogfights in Ukraine are still “improvised”, but this method of attack is only effective against small drones: the models used to shoot down enemy drones typically fly at 72 km/h and weigh less than a kilogram. , which makes them too slow to “catch up” with large drones, and too light to deal significant damage to them.

Attack of artificial intelligence systems

But the Ukrainian forces will soon have a specially designed system capable of inflicting much more damage. Marss, a Monaco-based defense startup, is sending combat drones in swarms controlled by sensor networks that detect enemy drones.

Using artificial intelligence, Mars drones detect, track and attack moving targets without human intervention. They reach a top speed of 270 km/h and are strong enough to withstand aerial collisions with small drones. They can also hit larger targets, such as the Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle, although they are more likely to be destroyed in such attacks. Their price is unknown, but they are almost certainly much cheaper than a rocket, the Economist notes.

Ukraine and Russia are not the only countries that want and are looking for this technology. American startup Anduril is building an unmanned aerial vehicle interceptor drone similar to the Marss model. In January 2022, the company signed a $1 billion contract with the US military.

A swarm of interceptor drones could be a good response to massive drone attacks, such as those that Russia has inflicted on Ukraine’s power grid. “In the dogfights of the future, people can be reduced to the role of observers,” concludes the Economist.

Source Economist