/ world today news/ Both Russia and Ukraine are in similar conditions regarding drone attacks. Detecting and destroying a drone with an air defense system is not as easy as it seems. But our drone operators have figured out the key to protecting the enemy. Now will we be able to protect ourselves from such examinations?
On July 24, Ukrainian troops attacked the Russian capital with the help of drones. The strike hit a building located on Komsomolsky Prospekt, not far from the building of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as a high-rise business center on Likhachev Street.
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, there was no significant damage or casualties. Fragments of a drone found near one of the buildings are reported to be of the aircraft type.
A week earlier, the enemy had struck the Crimean Bridge. As a result of the terrorist attack on July 17, a man and a woman, residents of the Belgorod region, were killed. And their 14-year-old daughter was seriously injured.
Now the traffic on the bridge is restricted, the Crimean authorities offer residents and guests of Crimea to use other route options. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Western countries may have been involved in the Crimean bridge attacks.
Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Oleksiy Reznikov, said in an interview with CNN that Kiev would continue to strike Crimea and the Crimean Bridge to reduce the defense capability of the Russian armed forces and allegedly “save the lives of Ukrainians.”
According to him, this is a “normal tactic” since the calculation is to cut off the supply of ammunition, fuel and food to the Russian forces. He did not rule out Ukraine stepping up strikes against the Black Sea Fleet.
A response to the terrorist attack in Crimea were the attacks on the Odessa port on July 19. The Ministry of Defense noted that Russian missile strikes destroyed Ukrainian fuel depots as well as unmanned boat production sites.
These were their Ukrainian fighters used to carry out illegal activities. And after this launch, a whole series of strikes began, and the previous day, Ukrainian sources again shouted that there had never been such a retaliation from Russia before … But will this be enough to stop the terrorists?
VSU works according to plan
Nikita Komarov. Alexey, regarding the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge that took place on July 17, I got the impression that Ukrainian attacks on the territory of Crimea have become more frequent. These are drones and missile strikes. Their intensity has increased. According to the head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, they even end up in some places. Is it true that their activity has increased? And if so, what do you associate it with?
Alexey Chadayev. I think that when major operations are planned, and the counteroffensive of the armed forces of Ukraine is a major operation, even if some parts of the plan fail, others continue to be carried out on schedule.
The first strike he started from was at the Chongar Bridge. And then – strikes on the bridge, on warehouses in Crimea. This was related to the second phase of the counteroffensive, when according to their plan they should have already advanced far enough south into Zaporozhye.
That is, to break the Surovikin line. Maybe even take Tokmak, get closer to Melitopol. These plans were not destined to come true. However, they continue to develop the second part that was planned.
– Theoretically, this could be the so-called “Plan B”? When did the counterattack fail, including because of our more or less good preparation and the density of our artillery? Which of course requires ammo. And the delivery was organized at a decent level. Maybe they realized what our advantage was and decided to strike at the supply, at the rear bases?
– In the NATO concept, there is such a thing as isolation of combat zones. In accordance with it, of course, first of all it is necessary to kill the logistics. That is, warehouses, supply of ammunition, fuel and everything else.
Nothing was going their way until those long-range Storm Shadow missiles came along. And our air defense has not yet learned to shoot them down. Unlike those drones, which basically do not reach the target.
Air defense against drones
Let’s talk about air defense. Is it realistic to build its effectiveness to cover all major areas? So that their drones do not reach Moscow in any case?
– Literally on the eve of the attack on the Crimean bridge, I published a memorandum with some basic provisions on the organization of defense against unmanned aircraft.
Talks about how it differs from air defense. So classic air defense doesn’t work well against drones. The fact is that classic air defense is designed for a situation where there are few objects in the sky, all of them are large and expensive. For example, an airplane.
In this case, a drone attack is potentially dangerous because there may be many objects, but they are all small and relatively cheap. This is how a server can be overwhelmed with a DDOS attack, just like an air defense can be overwhelmed with a large number of drones.
When a dozen or a few dozen are flying, it’s not so bad. But when hundreds fly – this, of course, will be a completely different level of complexity.
The second is that air defense, unlike classical air defense, is not objective. That is, it cannot be total. Our air defenses are designed to close the entire sky above us.
But in the case of drones, this will not work, because conditionally they can be launched behind the nearest fence. And no matter how much you close the sky, the drone will fly at a height of 15-20 m – and still reach the target.
Therefore, first of all, you should think about covering the object.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an oil terminal, a munitions depot, or a city of a million, they must have means of detection, means of controlling the air around them, and means of destruction. These are the so-called “air mines” – unmanned interceptor aircraft and other means.
As for electronic warfare (EW), I don’t have much faith in them. Because electronic warfare is how to cut off the signal from the operator to the device. And drones are becoming increasingly autonomous from the operator.
Relatively speaking, it has a program put into it – and it flies according to that program, whether it has an operator connection or not. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the means to physically capture or destroy drones in the first place.
– What if there are many objects that need to be covered? Oil depots, large logistics centers, ammunition depots, urban areas, etc.? Is it realistic to build anti-drone defenses at all these points so that the enemy cannot score?
– For such objects, a distributed principle of defense organization is necessary. When tracking object data is automatically transmitted from one monitoring sector to another.
That is, through a unified network of monitoring, sensors and tracking devices that can exchange information with each other. In this case, accordingly, the management of weapons can also be transferred from one control center to another.
Missile strikes in Crimea
– It was also about missile strikes. We are talking about the Western cruise missiles Storm Shadow and Skalp. To put it bluntly, they are causing us problems. Perhaps a classical air defense system is applicable here or is some know-how required, do you think?
– I’m not an expert here. And my reasoning may be more amateurish. I have a much better understanding of drones. But if we talk about Storm Shadow and Skalp missiles, then these are missiles that are launched from an aircraft. It’s from the air.
In this sense, first of all, it is necessary to systematically knock out the fleet of carrier aircraft in the air and on the ground. They can hang on to that. This is a more active defense than trying to defend against missiles with air defenses.
Russia’s response to the attacks
– Of course, the game does not go one way. Every day, our army carries out massive strikes on infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots on the territory of Ukraine. And quite successfully.
The port of Reni in Odesa region was recently attacked. As far as I understand, kamikaze drones were used there.
Alexey, have you noticed an increase in the effectiveness of our drone strikes against enemy targets lately? It was reported here that all Gerani-2s had flown. What is it related to? Isn’t it with exhausting the enemy’s air defenses?
“I see that our drone pilots, the Gerani, have also learned to launch large numbers of decoys similar to them. And in the same way they overload the Ukrainian air defense.
That is, the Geran, which carries ammunition, flies. And next to it – a dozen more unpretentious drones, outwardly indistinguishable, worth a nominal 30 thousand rubles. On which the Ukrainian air defense is beating furiously.
– I remembered that the enemy confirmed this. They posted footage of them taking down these lures. These drones cost about 30-50 thousand, and air defense missiles worth several tens of thousands of dollars are spent on them. Thank you very much, Alexey!
Translation: SM
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