How to defeat a drone?
Our media spoke so synchronously about the fact that Saudi Arabia was unable to protect its refineries and wells from semi-literate militants, that it is worth considering.
And not only on the topic of what the Saudis tried to defend there, but also on the topic of protection from these self-made UAVs and the same “cruise” missiles.
The main motive - the repetition of Putin's words, they say, would be armed not with the American "Patriots", but with the Russian C-400, you would be happy.
Would it be?
We decided to consider this issue with the assistance of a specialist. Our specialist is a former employee of one of the military research institutes. That is, a person who worked precisely in the direction of how to most effectively condemn an enemy drone.
And to begin with, we will try to answer the question of whether it is so important which Saudi defense systems tried to defend themselves. And how really important is the replacement of the Patriot with the Triumph.
Not important at all.
No, buying C-400 instead of the Patriot is useful. Especially for the Russian budget, so in this regard we are only welcome. But essentially ...
Both the American complex and the Russian one in our case will have one problem: they will work equally poorly against small-sized low-flying targets. That the S-300 (and the S-400 is still a modification of the S-300PM3), that the MIM-104 Patriots were not designed to work for such purposes. In the 70s of the last century Drones if they were, then if they were inferior in size to the pilots, then a little.
Of course, there are modifications, and today we have to chase after today, however, in our opinion, the air defense is still losing the UAV. Those are becoming faster, less noticeable, and nailing them is becoming more difficult.
The best example of this is plastic airplanes, which terrorists fire at anyone they can reach, including ours in Syria.
The wing span is in 4 meters, the gasoline engine from the trimmer in the 4-5 horsepower, for example, XAircraft or KapteinKuk for poverty, as a base for flight control and Arduink as a processor for everything else.
In general, the cost of 200 dollars at the exit (with "Captain"). And this structure may well carry up to 10 kg of payload. We recount in C-4 or something from this opera, and we get a very wide range of possibilities in terms of damage. Moreover, “Arduin” is quite able to activate the detonator.
And the most unpleasant thing is that this structure is almost invisible to radars. And if it flies at an altitude of 50-100 meters, and with the envelope of the landscape, everything is sad for air defense in general.
The Saudis had the Patriots and the very old Hawk complexes. Compared to the Syrians, these are C-300 and C-125. That is, you can run, the only question is efficiency. It will be approximately the same, that is, below average. Something will fly through such a defense.
Meanwhile, photographs of the damage to the complexes showed that the job was done perfectly. Oil tanks on Abqaiq, and huge tanks, are difficult to miss, but in each of the eight affected gaping holes from the warheads of cruise missiles that fell into them or drones.
We can say that the Saudis encountered a problem, but in fact this problem encountered oil tanks Saudi Arabia.
And you can criticize the Patriots as much as you like and praise C-400, we are sure that if our air defense systems were in place, the result would probably be less sad, but the full success is more than doubtful.
By the way, the world is not facing such flying products for the first time. And the tail stretches from the last century, because in the first campaign in the Gulf, the Iraqis used something that did not quite fit into the canons. And already in the second campaign there they began to use everything that turned up by the arm. That is, it could fly and explode.
Perhaps this is precisely why immediately after the victorious end of the Gulf War in the USA, they began to seriously prepare for the fact that all “undeveloped countries” would begin to try to produce inexpensive, but simple and affordable ersatz rockets. Winged, of course.
It was thought by someone that in order for such a rocket to be able to take off, go along the route in accordance with the terrain based on GPS data and just dive at the target, you need the power of an 486 processor, 16 MB of RAM and 1GB of memory on your hard drive. Well, the simplest GPS receiver.
Today, all this can be arranged with the help of the Rapsberry Pi or Arduino controller, which for some 35 dollars, “Aliexpress” is glad to offer to everyone.
There they wish.
But let's leave the Saudi Arabia air defense system for a while and ask another question: how to shoot IT that flies at 100 km / h at an altitude of less than 100 meters and drags explosives to our oil tanks?
It’s necessary to shoot down ...
Now everyone has EW in their heads and lips. Omnipotent and omnipotent. We will rejoice, yes, we will have more success in this direction than the others will have.
"Silok." It is the antidron complex. "Silok" is powered from a conventional outlet, maybe from 127В. But in fact it is weapon close range. Effective ranges, depending on the signal passage, are not more than 5 km, in height more than 200 m and not more than 1 km with UAV height less than 100 m.
The numbers are clear. If the UAV will sneak at an altitude of less than 100 meters, then even the latest "Silok" can detect it at a distance of less than a kilometer.
The Silok is able to take control if the drone is manually controlled from the ground, or create interference in the entire range of radio frequencies. In the latter case, the UAV simply loses control and crashes. In the first case, it is necessary for the drone to work in the answering machine mode, i.e. He gave out not only video information to the operator, but also reported his coordinates.
If the UAV does not meet these criteria, that is, it goes according to the program ...
We have Rosehip-AERO. The station is still being finalized, but the project looks promising.
The station can cause noise interference both within the range and narrowly targeted. After dimming the control signal in drones, a program usually works to return the device to the launch point. To prevent this, “Rosehip-AERO” creates a false navigation field (time to create - a few minutes), changing the dynamic coordinates, as a result of which the UAV is diverted to the side and may ultimately land where we need, and not the enemy.
But also not without nuances, for accurate work it is necessary to know the UAV parameters, that is, to collect information first. There is not always time for this, and UAVs assembled in shed conditions can be very different from ordinary ones.
And here we had an idea that many would not like.
A UAV that is following a route using an inertial reporting system. For example, collected on elementary giblets from China. Well, a compass - no problem. Gyro-compass? Yes, the gyro stabilizer from the video camera will solve the problem no worse. Speed sensors and other things are taken from any children's copter. And on the knee a system is going through which the device, conditionally not using satellite navigation, can fly from point A to point B. From memory.
At point B, serious things begin. The navigation system is turned on, the device produces accurate guidance, and then attacks the target. How long does it take? Little. But up to this point, UAVs can be tried to suppress as much as necessary. But it’s impossible to give the drone the brains or take control if it simply isn’t.
Now smart people will say: who will write the program to these masturbation workers? Our answer will be this: since gentlemen, money from terrorist organizations and countries of the Middle East, to put it mildly, do not need money, then there is someone to write the program for. For a suitcase "greens" - there.
Twisting the idea from different angles, we recognized it as unpleasant, but having the right to life. It’s good that so far the nuclear charges in the world are under lock and key. It seems to be.
And what if this point C is with us? And will something fly there?
The question, of course, is interesting. And let's go answer from top to bottom.
Yes, we have C-400. A very good complex, so to speak, with a fair amount of confidence. But how appropriate is it to set it against a drone weighing 50 kg?
The smallest rocket for the C-400, namely the 9M96E2, has a length of almost 6 meters and a mass of 240 kg. Yes, active radar homing is present. This is all good, but how much can a rocket maneuver in case of what? And how easy will it be for her to visit a target in which the metal is slightly more than 10% of the total mass?
It will be unrealistic. In both cases. But there is also a third caveat.
Not so long ago, talking about night fighters, I wrote how the Germans, brought to hysteria by the outrage that the crew of Po-2 did at night, specially for fighting this aircraft, they washed down a special night fighter from the Fokke-Wulf-189, then is from the "frame." Why?
Yes, because it was not fast and could take the locator first, and then, when the Germans realized that the Po-2 was not “lit up,” they installed the ancestor of the current thermal imagers.
The C-400 missile is intended for an aircraft, which is a contrasting target. It is made of metal, there is a lot of metal, it can be seen. He, the plane, is fast.
What about the drone? 90-100 km / h - where is it? And the minimum of metal is how?
And then, there is no data on the cost of one rocket, but we think that they will be more expensive than the “Shell”. But there is data on missiles for the "Shell-1С". About 10 million for one 57Е6Е.
Yes, there is "Shell-1С". With guns and rockets.
Alas, guns are almost useless here. Watched more than once what it looks like. Too big shell for such a purpose, too few of them.
57E6 rockets are good. They take any flying target, and they take it confidently if they take a radar. But then again, we compare the price / quality parameter and understand that by firing bombing drones with such missiles, you can bankrupt any country, perhaps, except for the USA and Saudi Arabia.
And again: the radius of work is very small.
If we were assigned to protect tanks with oil from drones, then we see this option: first solve the detection problem. Visual - at 100-150 meters in height, nothing is visible or almost inaudible, but with the radar it is still sadder. So the principle of the good old posts of VNOS may well work.
A radar capable of detecting small and low speed targets at a distance of more than a kilometer, unfortunately, exists so far only in words or paper. Even with "Shell-1С" this is done through optics and visually. Nobody will cancel the physics and extremely small EPR, and all assurances that our systems “confidently” take targets with the EPR of 0,1-0,3 sq. m, this is, you know ... 30 x 30 cm square of metal from a distance of a kilometer ...
By the way, very often from such a distance such an EPR have ... geese! And what, the electrolyte in their circulatory system and water in the body sometimes give such pictures ...
So, visual observation posts. At such a distance so that you can effectively warn about the attack and give the opportunity to prepare for reflection.
What to beat?
Opinions diverged. Initially, it seemed that the “Shell” seemed quite to itself, but then we remembered the torment of calculations in Alabino, when they tried to shoot down the drone target from the cannons ...
Yes, the 30-mm shell is completely unsuitable here. Too big. The ammunition is too small. Too strong a shell, because he was counting on either a serious rocket or a helicopter. But not for a plastic creation with a motor from a brushcutter.
And Shilka, even though it has more trunks, and has a smaller caliber, looks better, but not perfect. For the same reasons.
If we decided what to blame, then - do not laugh - ShKAS! Well, or something like that. Spark MG-34 or MG-42, but better ShKAS.
Ideal anti-dron means: aviation machine gun rifle caliber.
Rate of fire - quite. The number of rounds is the same. The cartridge is fast but weak. Yes, the wing will pierce and not notice, but how many are there? ShKAS gives out such a cloud, at least there are heels, but it will get into the engine. Or in the gas tank. Or in the blades.
In general, with probability theory and ShKAS it is quite possible.
Someone may say that this is not serious. Well, say it. In fact. Seriously, what we see in Saudi Arabia. The serious thing is that today nothing can be opposed to a small apparatus, which is poorly detected by modern means of observation, and therefore it is difficult to destroy it.
We can only draw a preliminary conclusion that a very serious adversary for air defense appeared on the scene - a small-sized kamikaze drone. Poorly detectable and difficult to destroy.
Well, the conclusion is this: we are waiting for a new round of development of air defense around the world. The antidronic direction is already late in its development.
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