In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have almost become a normal strike weapon. Due to the low cost, ease of assembly, and small size of small unmanned aerial vehicles, they have a strong ability to break through urban security and monitoring facilities. Especially when flying at ultra-low altitudes in densely populated airspace, it is difficult to receive early warning. Therefore, in the absence of weapons and ammunition, Ukraine adopted an integrated tactical approach of unmanned boats and drones, which caused certain damage to Russian power plants, refineries, and even bombers, early warning aircraft, and other targets parked at airports, resulting in heavy damage to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In addition, the Ukrainian military has also started using FPV drones to attack Russian armored vehicles and defense fortifications. Russia also frequently uses drones and even deploys "swarms" to strike targets such as Ukraine's energy infrastructure and military production bases, which also have an immediate destructive effect.
Both Russia and Ukraine have innovated the following tactical methods and weapons in counterattacking and intercepting each other's incoming drones:
Using acoustic detectors for early warning of incoming drones
Acoustic principles are a field of wave dynamics in physics that studies mechanical waves in media, including sound waves, ultrasound waves, and infrasound waves.
Early warning is the basic prerequisite for intercepting and striking incoming drones. In the conflict between Russia-Ukraine conflict, although the Ukrainian army constantly changes the radio frequency of the UAV operation to avoid the Russian anti UAV reconnaissance, no matter what frequency the UAV uses, it will make a buzzing sound in operation. Based on this, the Russian military has developed a detector using acoustic principles that can detect incoming Ukrainian drones at a distance of one or two kilometers or even further, regardless of the radio frequency used or how the frequency is changed. The sound detector can even determine the type of drone. Although the relevant parameters and battlefield combat effectiveness of this detector have not been publicly announced, it does use the sound characteristics emitted by drones to identify the model of the drone, and the specific effectiveness of its use remains to be observed.
Using light and heavy machine guns to counter drones
When the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, Ukraine developed the "Delta" data distributed combat system based on the cloud and equipped with a powerful security system, so that the Ukrainian army can obtain the early warning of an incoming UAV through computers or mobile phones and other remote devices, and convert it into a format, which is used to find the incoming target, evaluate the value of the incoming target, and propose what weapons to use to attack, destroy or weaken the target; Enable some applications so that any Ukrainian citizen with a mobile phone can take photos of drone flights and automatically transmit them along with location data to the Ukrainian military command center. These pieces of information will be added to similar reports, providing valuable intelligence for the Ukrainian military and providing target data to light and heavy machine gunners to shoot down Russian combat drones.
Due to the low altitude and slow speed of small drones, they are easy to be shot down by anti-aircraft machine guns. In March 2023, US media reported that a Ukrainian air defense team had shot down three Russian drones in a row using DP-28 light machine guns.
Similarly, in a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense in March 2024, the Russian air defense forces fired three shots using AK-74 assault rifles and RPK light machine guns, killing a Ukrainian drone.
Practical exploration of combat system against unmanned aerial vehicles
In September 2020, a group of suicide drones and cruise missiles suddenly attacked Saudi Arabia's oil processing facilities and oil fields, causing huge losses to Saudi Arabia. However, the US Patriot air defense system that Saudi Arabia spent a lot of money to purchase and deploy around it surprisingly did not work. Based on this, the United States is developing more powerful drone systems to eliminate drone swarms that attack. The "Coyote" drone system deployed by the US Army will be paired with KRFS radar and reassembled into an anti drone weapon system. In this weapon system, the "Coyote" drone is equipped with an advanced seeker and a warhead, and together with the KRFS active phased array radar that can capture and accurately track various types of drone threats in the Ku band, it strikes enemy drones. Not long ago, the US military installed a directed energy system on a "coyote" drone and intercepted a swarm of 10 drones during a drill.
In the conflict between Russia-Ukraine conflict, both Russia and Ukraine have formed strong cluster combat effectiveness by increasing the number and scale of UAVs with different functions. According to reports, the Russian military is currently improving its latest ROSC-1 anti drone system to enhance its ability to combat Ukrainian drones. The system not only blocks enemy drone channels and sends incorrect coordinates, but is also equipped with the "Wolf-18" drone, which can directly capture or destroy targets.
In 2020, Russia developed a 4-layer anti drone system that can interfere with communication, control, and navigation signals in the frequency range of 200 megahertz to 6000 megahertz within 30 kilometers. In addition, as each military branch has its own anti drone weapon system, in order to achieve system integration, it is necessary to develop universal technical standards to improve the interoperability of anti drone systems and their compatibility and scalability with new technologies.
It is not difficult to predict that in future wars, swarms of high-altitude, high-speed, stealth, long endurance, micro cluster, and intelligent new concept unmanned aerial vehicles will play an increasingly important role.
Portable individual soldier system anti drone
In May 2022, Ukraine adopted the anti drone system "Drone Hunter". The video released by the Ukrainian military shows a Ukrainian soldier aiming an anti drone rifle at a small drone in the sky. Shortly thereafter, the drone landed at the Ukrainian soldier's position. Another soldier caught the drone before it touched the ground.
Russia has launched a drone countermeasure series called "Banshee", and one of the drone countermeasure guns has been demonstrated and tested on the Russian Ukrainian battlefield. In the demonstration, the countermeasure gun successfully shot down a commercial model drone. In March 2024, Russia developed a compact K-1000 FPV drone dome suppression electronic warfare system (anti drone carry case), which uses high-power all-round interference to intercept single or multiple drones, including drone swarms, within a 250 meter radius and force them to land. The characteristic of this system is its small size, resembling a suitcase, easy operation, weight of only two kilograms, and very convenient installation and carrying.
Small projectile anti drone
A Russian university researcher has applied for a patent for a shell that can strike small unmanned aerial vehicles. The characteristic of this ammunition is that it is equipped with devices that can disable the onboard electronic and optical equipment of small drones. The 57mm artillery used by the Russian military may be equipped with this type of shell. It is said that this ammunition can first combat conventional civilian drones widely used in special military operations, and can also strike multi rotor drones, small drones, and various homemade aircraft.
In theory, to counter small drones, it is not necessary to have a powerful strike effect to make them malfunction, only to destroy their onboard electronic and optical equipment. The strike method of the shell mainly adopts an explosive electromagnetic generator composed of copper coils to generate strong electromagnetic pulses, which short circuits the wires of the drone and causes electronic devices to malfunction. In addition, the ammunition is also filled with metal killing elements. After the explosion, these lethal components will form a debris cloud, and none of the drones within its range will be spared. This magnetic ammunition has a diameter of 57 millimeters and is particularly suitable for striking low-speed small airborne targets. As for whether it can strike suicide drones, it will depend on the target's flight speed, size, and susceptibility to external adverse factors.
Laser weapons against unmanned aerial vehicles
The Russian military is advancing the construction of laser systems for other anti drone, anti reflective, and anti reflective electrical equipment, which will be matched with tank equipped killing weapons to strike incoming precision guided weapons. At present, the Russian military has equipped at least two genuine Russian style combat lasers. In 2017, the "Peresvet" full-size mobile laser system was put into use, which can both defend against air and missiles. It was put into combat duty on December 1, 2018. In 2017, the experimental design work of the "provocateur" -16 laser weapon project was launched. Although the relevant information was strictly confidential, there were still some reports indicating that a laser weapon to deal with enemy drones, optical and optoelectronic equipment was under development. Russian experts believe that the laser beam generated by "Peresvet" can destroy the electronic equipment of enemy air strike tools, which is enough to destroy ballistic missiles or cruise missiles, and even spacecraft at altitudes of hundreds of kilometers.
Set up an 'airborne minefield' for drones
Based on the location of the drone base and important defense targets, predict the main direction and timing of enemy drone deployment in advance, and based on their activity altitude and detection capabilities, set up blocking balloons, parachute cables, and launch aerial mines over their possible activity airspace to block drone routes; Alternatively, aerial traps can be set up for enemy drones by deploying landmines, rocket propelled grenades, smoke canisters, steel ball bombs, etc.
The "capture net" of unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Russia at the International Military Technology Forum, which includes setting up blocking balloons, parachute cables, and creating smoke, is a countermeasure to "lay minefields" in the air.
The Russian military has developed an anti drone equipment nicknamed "Flying Net", consisting of a simple woven net and small drones. When in use, the Russian military drone hangs a woven net under the aircraft and travels towards the enemy drone that has been detected by the Russian military. The woven net is used to intercept and "capture" the enemy drone in the air, thus achieving interception effect. The system is low-cost and easy to assemble, but it can produce remarkable results in intercepting small unmanned aerial vehicles.
Perform electronic interference on drones
The communication link is the main way for unmanned aerial vehicle systems to operate, and it is also the weak link of unmanned aerial vehicles. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicle systems are very sensitive to electromagnetic wave interference. Once they are subjected to electronic interference, it will result in incorrect control instructions, making them unable to perform tasks and even possibly losing control and crashing.
On April 14, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a notice stating that the Russian military units equipped with the "Krasuha-4S", "Murmansk", and "Moscow" electronic suppression systems have completed the task of searching and identifying airborne objects (including unmanned reconnaissance and attack aircraft), and have electronically suppressed the Ukrainian military aircraft's airborne radar. Since 2024, in response to the threat of Ukrainian suicide drones, Russia has deployed various electronic countermeasures devices on the upper body and turret of T-72 tanks, which interfere with nearby drone remote control signals to protect surrounding tank units from drone attacks.
The Israeli "Flagman TB2" UAV purchased by Ukraine from Türkiye has no ability to fight back against the latest electronic warfare system of the Russian army.
Anti drone operations through communication networks and applications
On December 6, 2023, the All Russian People's Front News Agency issued a statement stating that the "Radar People's Front" mobile application developed by the People's Front can quickly respond to enemy drones or sabotage activities, and has helped special forces shoot down 5 enemy drones. According to the report, with the help of timely feedback from users of the application, three drones were shot down in Bryansk Oblast and two drones were shot down in Kursk Oblast. As of now, over 310000 Russians have downloaded this mobile app. According to the announcement, the more people download the application, the higher the coverage density, and the faster the Russian military receives information about drones, in order to win the initiative for timely, rapid, and accurate shooting down of drones.
Ukraine has discovered a SIM card belonging to a Ukrainian operator in the wreckage of a Russian "Geranium" drone, speculating that Russia is attempting to guide its drone attacks through Ukraine's internal communication network. The Ukrainian military has complained that the Russian "Geranium" suicide drone has started flying at night, painting its body black to be more concealed, flying along a semi-circular trajectory instead of a straight line, and flying at lower and more agile altitudes, making it difficult for Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners to intercept.
Drone Anti Drone
Starting from the principle of drone operation, electronic interference can be used to block the connection between incoming drones and satellites, making them unable to locate or deviate from their course; It is also possible to interrupt the communication link between the incoming drone and the rear, causing the incoming drone to lose control, drift, or even crash. Starting from drones as offensive and defensive weapons, using drones to hunt down incoming drones or die together with them is also a good approach. The Russian military mainly uses the "Lancet" suicide drone, relying on its speed advantage to strike enemy drones, and has made significant achievements in actual combat. Russia has used drones equipped with automatic shotguns to create the "Flying AK47", which can carry out surface strikes on drone swarms.