Although the Russian military began large-scale use of drones in the past two years, in fact, as early as the beginning of the intervention in Syria in 2015, the Russian military noticed that all parties were keen to use drones to carry out reconnaissance and attack missions. Later, even the Hemeimeem Air base, where the main force of the Russian army in Syria is located, was repeatedly invaded by enemy drones and suffered certain losses.
The Russian army summed up the lessons learned and gradually explored a set of anti-drone tactics for such "low slow small" targets, and achieved good results.
On the morning of January 6, 2018, the Russian army in Syria detected 13 drone attacks, and then took dual means of fire interception and ground interference, destroyed 7 drones with the "Armor" -S1 short-range air defense system, and the remaining 6 were forced to land or crash after being "deceived" by the jamming device.
This case is quite classic, because it represents the two major schools in the field of anti-UAV: hard kill using anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft missiles, laser weapons and other physical kinetic energy attack, and soft kill using electromagnetic technology to implement interference and control.
However, the drone threat that the Russian military encountered in Syria was far less severe and complex than it is today. Along a front stretching more than 2,000 kilometers, thousands of Russian and Ukrainian drones fly day and night, attacking and defending each other.
With the increasingly heated UAV war between Russia and Ukraine, spear and shield are rapidly iterated and strengthened in the baptism of war, and some unexpected new tactics have emerged in the past.
According to the Russian "Arguments and Facts" weekly newspaper website reported on May 7, a Russian female drone pilot code-named "radio woman soldier" and his partner were awarded the Medal of Courage, one of Russia's highest national honors, for their outstanding achievements.
According to previous foreign media reports, the "radio female soldier" and his partner should be members of the FPV (First View UAV) team belonging to the Russian "southern" cluster.
According to Reuters, the FPV, a sudden rise in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, was originally designed for competitive competitions, because of its advantages of small, cheap and super maneuverability, and soon got the favor of the Russian and Ukrainian armies, and transformed it into a sharp weapon in the battlefield by adding ammunition.
A military FPV costs less than $500, can take off and land anywhere, and has a range of 5 to 20 kilometers. In combat, a two-man team is usually used, the pilot controls the drone, and the other soldier holds a tablet computer and is responsible for map navigation.
After entering the combat area, everything from enemy personnel to heavy equipment can be targeted by FPV. Despite the thick skin of the tank, its vulnerable parts, such as the open hatch, the poorly protected engine, the exposed ammunition, the slightest mistake will be the pervasive FPV back stab.
In late March, during their participation in the Avdeyevka battle, they not only cooperated with their own commandos to seize the enemy's tightly fortified positions, but also used FPV to break the fuel pump and radiator of a German "Weasel" infantry combat vehicle, making it inoperational and forcing the occupants to abandon the vehicle and flee.
After a brief repair of the front line, the Russian army restarted the infantry tanks and under the cover of darkness brought this precious prize safely into the territory under its control.
On the eve of the Red Square parade, including this "weasel", more than 30 heavy weapons from the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries were transported to Moscow's Victory Park for the public to visit. The "radio woman soldier" and her partner were also granted leave to come to the scene and touch the steel giant they had captured.
In an interview with Russian media, "radio female soldiers" admitted that the work of flying hands is not as safe and comfortable as people think, "as long as you sit comfortably 10 kilometers away from the contact line, while drinking hot coffee, while fiddling with the remote control."
On the contrary, an effective FPV team like her and her partner have long been on the blacklist of opponents. Just as one of the most effective weapons in anti-sniper and anti-submarine warfare is its own sharpshooter and submarine, the "ultimate means" of anti-UAV is to directly kill the other fighter.
This was also confirmed by the Radio Woman Soldier, who said, "There are people willing to pay for our lives... They can hit us with their suicide drones, their artillery, not to mention the Hmas rocket launchers, and they will show no mercy."
According to the United States "Newsweek" website disclosed that a Russian ace flyer codenamed "Moses" and his comrades had in a few months, the FPV control injured and sank 31 Ukrainian supply boats trying to force across the Dnieper River, they became the other side of the "thorn in the side." In late January, the building where the "Moses" team was hiding was tracked and found by the Ukrainian army drone team, and then killed by the other FPV.
Another example of the war took place in November 2023, according to Forbes magazine, when Ukrainian hackers hacked into the signal source of Russian drones and forwarded the signal to their own drone team, which used triangulation to quickly find the hidden Russian drone base, then summoned and guided artillery attacks.
From penetrating nearly 900 kilometers into the opponent's territory to fighting at close quarters, from exclusively targeting military targets to indiscriminate attacks, the breadth and intensity of the Russian-Ukrainian drone war is increasing.
According to the website of the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States, in just two years, Ukraine's local UAV manufacturers have soared from 7 to more than 80, and they plan to manufacture 1 million FPV by 2024. The Russian military has also set up a large drone force, and has built a new drone factory in Tatarstan, about 800 kilometers east of Moscow, which is expected to produce 6,000 medium-size drones with a range of nearly 2,000 kilometers and can carry 45 kilograms of bombs.
In the future, as artificial intelligence technology is more widely used in the military field, drones may really rewrite the model of warfare in the 21st century.
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