Reb v. Kab and "Shahmed": How Ukrainians win Russian Comet antennas
According to President Zelensky, Russia has launched about 1050 percussion drones and 1300 aircraft only one week of February. Both types of weapons use the Russian Satellite Operation system. It is a special antenna with a controlled reception (CRPA), which can connect to any satellite navigation receiver and filter signals, taking them only from satellites and eliminating obstacles that direct from the ground.
Ukraine has launched a large number of electronic warfare, including the secret "Pokrova" system, which even suppresses rockets. They blazing the connection and replacing the coordinates, forcing drones and kab to miss the goals. As a result, they can fall into the field, not on the infrastructure or residential building. In response, Russia modernizes "comet", increasing the number of antenna elements from 4 to 8, to 12 and more.
CRPA uses several antenna elements and combines their signals in smart ways using the so -called phased lattice. By shifting the signal phase when combining it with another, the antenna can selectively cut it off and create the so -called "zero". This makes a low -power satellite signal, even if there is a more powerful interference generator nearby. The problem is that the generation of each zero requires an additional element of the antenna.
Initially, the "comet" had four elements, that is, it could generate three "zeros" and thus neutralize the impact of three EWS systems. If the fourth was connected, then she made this protection and suppressed the navigation. In September 2023, a Ukrainian electronic wrestling specialist in September 2023 noted that in order to suppress Cometi, there are four stations of radio electronic struggle in one area, which is a difficult task.
But the forces of defense seem to have placed many of them in the right places, and this has had a effect. Unlike drone control systems, to suppress satellite navigation requires only a simple low -power device at a well -known wavelength. There are many commercial GPSs size from the phone for $ 30. "In the end, Ukraine was able to overcome the resistance of four -footed CRPA because they launched more mufflers," said Forbes ASINT analyst, known as swarm.
According to his observations, in 2024 the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began to use an improved "comet-m" with 8 elements instead of four. Due to this, the accuracy of the managed planar airplanes and Shahanedov increased. But the advantage of the aggressor did not last long, and after a while the Russians complained that the accuracy of Bombs with the UMPC has sharply decreased in some areas. According to the analyst, Ukraine concentrated in these places even more remedies.
At the beginning of 2025, Roy noticed a new version of "comet" with 12 antenna elements. And in March, Sergei Flash posted on his channel in Telegram photos of a captured "comet" with at least 16 elements. And this is not the limit. "The data volume and data processing increases with each additional antenna element. The total size of the grate will also be a restriction as the elements should be divided by a few centimeters.
Sixteen elements of the antenna seem large enough, but it does not prevent anyone from adding more if it can be done cheap,"-said Danielr. According to Roy, the rates in the war are now high, so Russia is not going to stop. With the increase in the number of elements of the antenna, they are becoming more difficult, but to increase the accuracy, the cabin will continue to increase as long as the controlled planning and correction modules (UMPC) will still be able to pick them up.
Analysts have drew attention to the increase in development. The transition from four elements to eight took at least a year, then only a few months to switch to twelve, and even shorter to sixteen. This may indicate that Ukrainians unfold the systems of EWS very quickly, and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have to have time. This concerns the suppression of navigation when the bomb or drone does not know where it is and how to fly to the target.
Otherwise, the situation with coordinates ("purpleding"), when the sight of sights with false navigation data are simulated - "Comet" is difficult to handle it. The "Intercession", which has been exposed in 2024 and since then, has probably increased the scale of work in the banging. The arms race is ongoing, and engineers on both sides will work on new technologies in response to new challenges. It is difficult to predict, which will eventually win the battlefield.