The speed of the drone warfare revolution is showing no sign of slowing down, a leading light of the Ukrainian military machine has revealed.
Vadym Slyusar, a professor at Ukraine’s Central Research Institute of Armaments and Military Equipment, said new concepts were being introduced all the time as his country and Russia vied for superiority in the so-called “near-surface domain”.
“Every day of war brings something new to the battlefield,” he told delegates at the International Armoured Vehicle Conference in Farnborough last month.
Slyusar highlighted the increasing use of drones controlled by fibre optic cable that spools out as the platform flies, with both the Russians and Ukrainians regularly fielding such systems in clashes.
Ukrainian personnel captured a Russian device recently and found commercial Chinese-made parts inside and a spool showing it had held 10km of line.
The Ukrainians have been exploring the use of this technology to deploy mothership drones connected to a smaller, more agile interceptor UAS for counter-missions.
Video processing and target detection is undertaken by the mothership using inbuilt AI capabilities which track targets and automatically guide the interceptor drone.
Since the cable does not touch the ground, the risk of entanglement in obstacles or breakage is reduced.
The huge advantage of the technology is its immunity to electronic warfare measures, although Ukraine’s
Unmanned Strike Aviation Brigade has introduced a method for detecting fibre optic-guided drones using a specially developed mobile radar station.
Counter measures such as highly sensitive sound detection devices and quadcopters equipped with sharp titanium-tipped rotors that slice through such cables are also being evaluated currently.
Other drone-based concepts being assessed include “aerial minefields” – swarms of drones that protect convoys from first-person view kamikaze devices where a central, AI-powered hub allows the system to learn and adjust to enemy tactics.
Multiple UAS carrying camouflage or Kevlar anti-drone nets over vehicle convoys are also being looked at, the professor said.
