Drone duels brought the Air War to a new level: experts explained what has changed

Most often, duels occur between two quadcopters of the civilian class, which occur in the sky during reconnaissance and observation of positions - aircraft simply ram each other, checking for strength. The winners of such clashes are usually those who manage to break the enemy's engines without receiving significant damage in response. "We have not seen this before.

For the first time in history, we see drone conflicts with drones," says Caitlin Lee, Head of the Center for Studies of Unmanned Aircraft and Autonomy at the Mitchell Aerospace Institute in Arlington, Virjinia. Another innovation in the war in Ukraine was high -tech UAVs with artificial intelligence. They hunt other drones with the help of built -in radars, and then attack networks, entwining engines. Thus operates the Dronehunter F700 Hexacopter from Fortem, armed with two UAV fishing networks.

The captured drones are safely landing on a parachute. "At the moment, we are really the only ones in the world who can do it," says John Gruen's chief executive director. According to media reports, Ukraine first used Dronehunter in May 2022 to capture drones that Russia used to track Ukrainian troops for the advanced and adjustment of artillery fire. When the Russian Federation began to launch Iranian Dron-Kamikadze Shahd Forestm, she began to modify Dronehunter to fight such threats.

New type aircraft began in the sky over Ukraine due to the spread of inexpensive commercial drones, such as MAVIC quadcopters from the Chinese manufacturer DJI. Engineers show ingenuity and modify devices, forcing them to dump grenades or reconnaissance. It is difficult for soldiers on Earth to protect themselves from such drones, as it is difficult to see or hit them with small arms.

According to Kitelin Lee, it is difficult to say whether a small drones will play a decisive role in the war in Ukraine, whether they will help Ukrainian or Russian troops make a breakthrough or take the initiative for the final victory. "The question remains whether drones should become even more sophisticated to protect the land, not to mention to be used in a large -scale military campaign to return the territories," she added.

According to Sarah Creps, the director of the Cornell-Brooks School Institute of Technical Policy, the military can reconfigure radars to find smaller targets, then the air defense systems will begin to attack each bird. It compared the UAVs with homemade explosive devices, which have already spent billions of dollars in combating the US and other countries.

"In fact, these are homemade explosive devices that interfere with the military, creating asymmetrical benefits that are difficult to resist," the expert said. Another problem with small drones is their cheapness and accessibility. Separately upgraded UAVs that are unable to cause critical harm, but in the case of mass use, many virtually an infinite number of goals can be affected. Thus, the combat group can attack the stronger and better armed opponent.

This potential inspires dozens of companies around the world, including Blighter Surveillance Systems, Dedrone and Detect to develop new drones protection technologies. Such systems can be ground, manual or unmanned and the UAVs in different ways, for example, with laser rays or electromagnetic interference. Against the background of war in Ukraine, other countries develop unmanned weapons systems that are intended for air battles under new rules.