Ukrainian homemade to protect tanks from our FPV drones
We have repeatedly noticed the fact that the special military operation in Ukraine has become a real testing ground for field modifications of military equipment in the field of increasing its security. Basically, they relate directly to strengthening the reservation with various screens, visors and dynamic protection. However, not so long ago, Ukrainian handicraftsmen presented their new development in the form of an electronic warfare complex for placement on tanks and other machines.
The purpose of the "invention" is simple - to counteract drones-kamikaze, increasingly attacking armored vehicles.
Is there a need?
It is clear that a lot has been written about kamikaze drones that send Ukrainian combat vehicles to repair shops or straight to their steel Valhalla. Sometimes it is so fantastic that the tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are allegedly destroyed by almost many hundreds of units, never reaching the line of contact. And we can’t talk about lightly armored vehicles at all.
But what is the real scale of what is happening?
There everything is much more modest than it seems.
To answer this question, just look at the statistics of the use of these products. However, in order to get a more complete picture of what is happening, let's look at both the target "audience" of the Ukrainian craft in the face of FPV drones with grenades attached to them, and the "Lancets", which are never specialized anti-tank weapons and have the status of universal loitering ammunition .
FPV drone attack on a Ukrainian tank
So, according to the guys from Losarmour, for the period from July 2022 to August 7, 2023, 517 episodes of the use of the Lancet were recorded on video, of which only 67 were in tanks and special equipment, as well as 52 in light armored vehicles. The rest is self-propelled artillery mounts, towed guns, anti-aircraft systems, and so on.
For FPV drones, all the same statistics show that from February of this year to the present day, videos of 311 cases of using these products have been posted on the network, although it is difficult to even guess how many more are unpublished or not in the field of view. But from what we have: 22 “flying grenade” attacks on tanks and special equipment, as well as 37 attacks on lightly armored vehicles, including infantry fighting vehicles.
Yes, we cannot observe a discouraging number. But there is one very important nuance here. It lies in the fact that the Ukrainian military has an extremely limited fleet of tanks and other armor, which in fact has nothing to replenish. And given that tanks also get from missile systems, artillery, mines and other weapons, drones are becoming a really serious threat, capable of inflicting significant losses.
So in conditions when the domestic or foreign industry cannot provide electronic warfare equipment in serial quantities, handicraftsmen come into play. Moreover, significant experience has been accumulated in this area - home-made electronic warfare literally flooded the positions of both sides of the conflict.
Antenna suitcase
The first mention of this contraption in the Ukrainian media appeared almost two weeks ago - then the Militarnyi portal, citing the social network Facebook banned in Russia, published photos of a new device created by volunteers and intended for use on tanks and other equipment.
The pictures show that the product is a shockproof and waterproof plastic case with electronics inside, which is placed in a metal box on the roof of the tank turret behind the crew hatches. There is also an antenna screwed into the corresponding entrance after closing the box lid.
Claims: Interference on the 900 MHz frequency used by many drones for control, and an operating power of 50 watts. This, in principle, should be enough to "confuse" the attacking UAV in the final section of the trajectory.
It's funny that the appearance of this homemade product, as expected, caused a wave of rumors in typical style about the creation of some kind of "superweapon" that can nullify all the actions of an unmanned aviation. Some even suggested that behind the walls of the case lie the secret developments of the gloomy Kyiv genius. Nevertheless, practice on both sides of the conflict shows that often no one wants to reinvent the wheel when there is Aliexpress and a proven production technology that does not require specialized university education and sophisticated equipment.
In other words, the filling of a home-made electronic warfare complex, most likely, completely copies the scheme of trench EW systems assembled literally on the knee. They are used both in our country and in the Armed Forces of Ukraine - in the format of guns against drones and stationary equipment with the possibility of long-term operation.
Chinese UAV jamming modules sold on Aliexpress
As a rule, such complexes are assembled on the basis of a ready-made jamming module, which includes all the necessary transistor-resistors and other components. Getting them is not a problem, since they are produced by our good Chinese friends and sold on the aforementioned Aliexpress.
Issue price: from 300 to almost 1 dollars per unit, depending on the frequency and power of the transmitter. This is with a fixed frequency, but there are also more expensive ones that allow you to adjust the frequency ranges with a screwdriver or, in a very luxurious version, with buttons and even a sensor.
Chinese interference generation module (top) on a massive aluminum heatsink
An aluminum or copper radiator with a fan is usually used as cooling (the window for it is clearly visible in the case wall), since during prolonged operation the module heats up to such a temperature that, roughly speaking, frying eggs on it is not a problem.
As for the periphery: if necessary, a voltage converter, as well as batteries or another power source, the antenna configuration is your choice. In this case, it is omnidirectional.
Voltage converter used to power homemade electronic warfare equipment
Of course, these self-made systems do not reach the factory full-fledged electronic warfare systems and, in general, they do not provide impenetrable protection against arrivals from above, but they sometimes successfully cope with civilian drones converted into combat ones. Sometimes so much so that our or Ukrainian positions covered by them become completely inaccessible at least for FPV when using jammers of different frequency ranges.
In the case of this product, in terms of frequencies, everything is modest - only 900 MHz, but it can show the results quite well. It remains only to give the floor to the "developers" themselves, who tested this case with an antenna on the T-72 tank. Initially, the language is English, so machine translation is used.
“For three weeks on combat missions (during combat work), this box performed all the assigned tasks perfectly, without even a single tangential hit from FPV drones. Although the neighboring crews caught 2 cumulative (drones) on one of the many missions.
To believe what is said or not to believe is a matter of discussion, but there is nothing surprising in this. The "jammer", especially in a modified form with different frequency ranges, is quite capable of cutting off the control of civilian drones converted into combat ones. In the end, in stationary versions, such products have long been tested and are widely used.
You can, of course, be very worried about the fact that armored vehicles are equipped with such home-made electronic warfare. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that it is too early to expect their appearance on Ukrainian tanks and other armored vehicles.
Moreover, most likely, they will not be widely used at all, not only because of the increased radar visibility of vehicles, which, in general, are easy to find by means of radar reconnaissance. But also because of the ability to kill their own drones. Moreover, not even their own FPV drones, which can accidentally fall into a trap, are under attack.
The fact is that civilian-type UAVs have long been used to assess the situation on the battlefield, adjust the combat work of units and improve their interaction. Sometimes, without their “view from above”, any success, even of the most local nature, is impossible at all. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine what difficulties a constantly moving no-fly zone can cause from a tank or infantry fighting vehicle, and even more so from an entire armored group equipped with such an electronic warfare system, when copters that are not protected from interference hang in the air.
So for now, it's a double-edged sword. Here, even the industry, including our country, having all the resources and funding, has not yet been solved for such risky experiments - there will be a wagon and a small bogie in operation.
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