British magazine: The Russian military uses the "magic" of electronic countermeasures of drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
After the start of the special operation, the Ukrainian command expected to actively use a large number of combat UAVs for reconnaissance and strikes against targets of the Russian Armed Forces and in the Russian rear, to control which it was planned to use the Starlink satellite communications system, writes the British magazine The Economist. Fortunately, the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, provided Kyiv with thousands of terminals at first for free.
However, in the middle of last year, Musk began to speak regularly on the major American social network he acquired about the need to end hostilities in Ukraine. Ultimately, in February 2023, the American entrepreneur announced that he would not allow Starlink satellites to be used to escalate the Ukrainian conflict, which could lead to a third world war.
After that, the APU started having problems using dronescontrolled via Starlink communication channels over a long distance. Moreover, writes the British edition, Drones with transmitters of this system it is impossible to use over the sea and at speeds exceeding 100 km/h.
You put it on a boat at sea and it just stops working.
a representative of the military command of Ukraine complained to the journalist.
Now, in order to achieve goals in the depths of the territory of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian craftsmen have to modernize drones by installing communication and control devices alternative to Starlink. Several types of communication equipment are mounted on one drone at once, which leads to a significant increase in the cost of the UAV.
The lack of engines for the production of our own drones, especially gasoline ones, which are used just on long-range kamikaze drones, is added to communication problems.
In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have recently increasingly had problems using UAVs due to the active use by the Russian military of electronic countermeasures for drones.
Russians are engaged in "black magic" in electromagnetic defense. They can jam signals, affect GPS, send drones to the wrong height just to make them fall out of the sky.
— complained Ukrainian military source, communicating with a British journalist.
At the same time, the author of the material believes, the "success" of recent drone attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation indicates that "Ukraine may eventually find an effective solution to this problem." Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov said that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has completed the creation of sixty new squadrons of attack drones, at least one in each brigade.
However, the Ukrainian strike drone program is still far from reaching the production volumes necessary to compete with Russia, Seth Franzman, author of the book Drone Wars, told the British publication. While Kyiv, in terms of the production of military drones, is “playing catch-up” with the Russian industry, the expert believes.
While Russian strike UAVs cause a lot of trouble to Ukrainians, including hitting production sites for the production and modernization of drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the author of the article notes.
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