/ world today news/ The “Geran-2” kamikaze drone has become one of the main tools for the demilitarization of Independence. Drones have proven to be an effective, cheap and difficult to attack by air defense means of destroying Ukraine’s strategic rear areas. For a year and a half, the VSU and Western specialists built a system to counter the “flying mopeds” and even achieved some success along the way. But Russia and Iran turned the tables again, forcing the enemy to start over.
Until now, the Geran’s main advantage was its simplicity, which made the drone a cheap and therefore mass-produced weapon. The cranes fly to the target according to data from GNSS modules that receive signals from navigation satellite systems – such as our GLONASS, the American GPS or the Chinese Beidou. Orientation based on satellite data eliminates the need for the drone to carry expensive and complex equipment on board.
To pass through areas where enemy radio-electronic warfare has suppressed the navigation signal, Gerans are equipped with a simple inertial guidance system (INS). Such blocks are assembled on the basis of gyroscopes. The problem with them is that they accumulate error over time.
Therefore, for rockets and airplanes, the inertial systems have to be made very complex and therefore expensive. But this is not required for the Geranis: the INS has to keep the drone on course at a distance of about ten kilometers, and even very simple devices are suitable for this.
In addition, the drone flies at the speed of the aircraft of the First World War, and therefore is perceived by most radars of modern anti-aircraft systems as a disturbance (in the language of experts, it does not pass the selection of targets by speed).
Here we add the shape of a “flying wing”, the almost complete absence of metal parts on the surface of the body and the low temperature of the exhaust gases of the internal combustion engine – and the result is a device that is extremely inconvenient as a target for both anti-aircraft missile systems with radars , as well as for MANPADS (portable anti-aircraft missile complexes for air defense), whose missiles have an infrared homing head.
The Ukrainian answer
The beginning of the massive strikes against Ukraine with “Gerani” (the non-brothers themselves continue to call these drones “Shahedi”) presented the Ukrainian armed forces with a very difficult task:
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Soviet kamikaze anti-drone missile systems proved almost useless;
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MANPADS can take them down, but this is economically devastating and does not always work;
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Attempts to use fighters to combat UAVs resulted in the death of several MiG-29s. As a result, Geran became the first kamikaze drone to take down an enemy fighter with its pilot.
However, the answer was found. Germany has organized deliveries to Ukraine of Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, which are armed not with missiles, but with two 35-mm automatic cannons. In addition to them, the Ukrainian armed forces made a huge number of “tachankas” – pickups and trucks, on which they installed from the Soviet ZU-23-2 twin anti-aircraft guns and double, triple and even quadruple machine guns. Even the archaic “Maxim” and “Degtyarevi” were used.
Floodlights began to be installed at the approaches to industrial zones in cities, and a special program for smartphones was distributed among Ukrainian citizens. The user simply has to select the type of target he heard flying over him, and the smartphone itself transmits data to the center about the time and place where the missile, drone or Russian aircraft was spotted.
However, the main means of combating our drones has become the network of warning posts: observers with telephones move to certain positions and, when the geraniums fly over them, report that they heard the sound of “motorcycles”.
Having received information from two or three lines of observers, the territorial headquarters understands well where our drones are coming from, where and in what number, and accordingly, with this data, orders crews with MANPADS and “tachankas” with machine guns to move to the interception point.
Since the flight speed of the “Gerans” is low, the interception groups of the kamikaze drones have enough time to take a position convenient for shooting.
In general, the Ukrainian armed forces returned to the methods of organizing air defense from the Second World War: searchlights, acoustic reconnaissance posts, telephone warnings, firing at aerial targets from cannons and machine guns.
How effective is this system? The Ukrainians claim to shoot down 90-95% of our Geranis. In reality, however, the situation is exactly the opposite. A system organized on the lines of the 1940s should demonstrate similar efficiency. That is, a good result should be to defeat approximately 10-15% of the targets that reach the intercept line.
The Russian counter-response
But, as they say, for every complex nut there is always a left-handed bolt. This year, the “Gerans” began to fly on cunning routes, making circles and loops, returning several times to the same area and hitting targets that they had already flown past. Such patterns confuse the headquarters and prevent the anti-aircraft gunners from reaching the optimal firing position.
In November, amid a sharp increase in nighttime attacks, Ukrainians discovered that the drones were now painted black. Apparently, this measure was taken to reduce the effectiveness of the detection of these war machines using searchlights.
At the same time, Ukrainians discovered to their horror that several downed drones were equipped with LTE modems with SIM cards of Ukrainian mobile operators inserted into them. The construction looks like an experiment: the elements are fixed with tape, and the modems are powered by an additional power battery. Given that our “Geraniums” are now produced in large series at the brand new factory in Elabuga, such craftsmanship means only one thing: our developers are experimenting.
Why might such an innovation be necessary? There are two options here. The first is that our designers want to use Ukrainian cellular communication stations as an additional drone correction system. But there is also a more interesting hypothesis: perhaps there is an intention to convert the Geran into a guided weapon and transfer it to our agents on the territory of the Independent.
In this case, our observers in the Ukrainian rear will be able not only to monitor the course of the strikes, but if they detect any action of the enemy’s air defense or another “tasty” target, direct the “Gerana” to it in real time.
The Flying Sundae
On December 3, it became known that debris from a downed Geranium with an unexploded thermobaric warhead was found in Ukraine. Previously, drones were equipped with a 50 kg warhead, where up to 45 kg were explosives. In terms of its explosive power, such a charge is approximately twice that of a 155 mm howitzer shell.
Such munitions can be used most successfully to combat massive enemy buildings, destroy industrial and administrative facilities, and manpower deployment points.
Thermobaric munitions are dangerous because they create a continuous volume of high-temperature combustion that kills all living things and ignites all flammable materials. In this case, the resulting high pressure zone generates a shock wave of decent force. “Geranium” with thermobaric warheads will retain the ability to destroy buildings, but will become much more dangerous to enemy personnel in closed spaces.
Since the weight of the Gerana warhead is comparable to the weight of the warhead of the heavy rockets of the “Sunsetpek” flamethrower system, the effect of their use will be roughly comparable. The only difference is that in the deep rear no one digs in and scatters like the front line soldiers do.
Geran Jet
Claims appeared in some native media that our army allegedly received a model of Geran with a jet engine. Actually, that’s not quite true. These statements are a loose retelling of the words of Russia’s Honored Pilot, Reserve Major General Vladimir Popov, said in a recent interview.
Tsargrad contacted Popov, and in a conversation with a “First Russian” columnist, the expert specified that he had said that these drones were being tested.
“There is such a development and the performance characteristics have been verified, they fit very well in the context of the application. But I did not say a word about the fact that mass production has started.” explained our interlocutor.
It’s only a matter of time before jet drones come into service. And not the most remote. The fact is that in November, Iran showed its new Shahed-238 drone, which is a development of the Shahed-136 (“Geran – 2” in our realities). The main difference between the Shahed-238 is that its internal combustion engine has been replaced by a jet turbine.
At the same time, the Iranians would not be themselves if they did not present several options for a new drone at once.
The standard model is equipped with a combined guidance system familiar to us from its predecessor, combining a GNSS module with an inertial system. In fact, it is still the same single-use bomber flying a given route, only significantly faster than its predecessors.
The second model is equipped with an infrared and optical homing head. It can be used to hunt certain types of targets. Including detecting enemy equipment through the heat of their engines.
The third model is equipped with a radar homing head. It is supposed to be a full-fledged killer of the opposing air defense. The drone flies along the route along with the standard model drones, and when the radar of the anti-aircraft complex starts beaming at them, it detects the source of the signal and attacks it.
So what?
Russian kamikaze drones are rapidly evolving, adapting to the responses the enemy gives. Therefore, the appearance of jet drones in our arsenal was only a matter of a relatively short time.
Obviously, the new “flowers” will not have as much range as their propeller predecessors, but they will be able to develop a higher speed. In practice, this will make a huge difference.
First, Ukraine will have to completely change the operation of the warning network. At the current distances between forward posts and mobile groups, anti-aircraft gunners simply will not have time to move to the point of interception of jet drones. So the distances will have to be increased, which will lead to a decrease in the density of air defenses against drones.
Second , will significantly reduce the effectiveness of firing at unmanned aircraft from automatic cannons and machine guns with visual guidance. Spotlights are useless against them.
Third the effectiveness of missile systems, MANPADS and enemy fighters is likely to increase, since a hot, fast (albeit small) target is more convenient for them than a low-temperature, slow machine slowly rattling in the sky with its wooden propeller.
By all accounts, it appears that the Geran aircraft will not replace, but rather complement, existing drones. Most likely, our army will try with their help to seize surplus anti-aircraft missiles from the Ukrainian armed forces and provoke the enemy to more active use of fighters (which are really looking forward to our flying radars and long-range anti-aircraft missiles with a long range).
The year 2024 promises to be full of events, and Russia is clearly preparing to participate in them not empty-handed. Well, we promise to closely monitor all innovations and talk in detail about all new products in our defense industry, as well as the successful discoveries of our allies.
Our cause is just, Victory will be ours!
Translation: ES
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