Trouble on the ground
It is clear that ground-based remotely controlled vehicles (ROVs) are more difficult to develop than aircraft or marine vehicles, simply because there are many more objects on the ground that must be overcome than in the air or in the water.
The director of the US Agency for Strategic Opportunities, which is engaged in prototyping and testing variants of existing systems and technologies, said: “We are carefully studying how commercial-type remotely controlled vehicles perform their tasks. I see great potential in them in terms of military applications. We have already made many paramilitary options. And some of them may well carry out complex military service. " He hopes that "by using them with existing technologies, we will gain the necessary experience and when new technologies appear, we will be ready to quickly create an effective platform based on them."
According to a representative of Roboteam North America, unmanned vehicles, although they must be highly reliable and have a good command of the environment, for military DUM such requirements are somewhat reduced. "Even if the SMB hits the wall, the cost of such a mistake is minimal here." The company has sold nearly 1,000 remote controlled robots to 20 countries, including Australia. Canada, France, Israel, Italy, Poland, Great Britain and the USA.
Rheinmetall Canada is developing a multipurpose DUM based on an 8x8 all-terrain wheeled platform (with an optional tracked configuration). This fully floating platform has a top speed of 40 km / h and features a “learn and repeat” function to remember the routes you have traveled. The main purpose of the platform is reconnaissance, but it is assumed that it will also perform other tasks: transportation of various cargoes, evacuation of casualties, a communications relay and a weapon system. The vehicle can be controlled by line-of-sight radio or satellite communications and programmed to travel through predetermined intermediate points.
Leading South Korean defense company Hanwha unveiled a prototype of a new 6x6 remote-controlled vehicle at OX Korea 2018, which will continue to be developed to meet the needs of the South Korean army.
The six-ton prototype, now called the Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle, is about 4.6m long, 2.5m wide and 1.85m high with an extended telescopic sensor mast.
The prototype can carry a cargo weighing about a ton, at the exhibition it was shown with a stabilized remotely controlled combat module armed with a 12.7 mm S&T Motiv K6 machine gun, although it can be equipped with other weapons depending on the requirements of the task. The scale model, also shown at the exhibition, was armed with a module armed with a 7.62mm machine gun and a launcher with two ATGMs.
The next conflict?
According to some estimates, the world market for DUMs will reach $ 2.33 billion by 2021, with the highest growth rates observed in the Asia-Pacific region, more precisely in countries such as China, India, Japan and South Korea.
Military and law enforcement agencies in many countries are eyeing the experience of the US military in deploying robots with weapons. “The next conflict will be with the participation of the SAM,” predicts a representative of the Roboteam company.- Robots will transport wounded soldiers, ammunition and conduct surveillance and reconnaissance on the battlefield. There is a robot for everyone."
The sooner the US Department of Defense can adopt commercial robot technology, the greater the potential benefits. “It will be able to obtain reliable and inexpensive technology that can meet the needs of the military. This will save the Ministry of Defense a lot of time, as well as money for R&D."
Unmanned systems were once a niche opportunity, but before our very eyes they are seriously changing the paradigm of military operations. While they offer an alternative that allows combat missions to be carried out more safely and more efficiently, they are no longer seen as the new innovative technology they were considered to be. The militaries of many countries are now looking at new ways of using this technology rather than seeing this new technology as a thing in itself.
UAVs in Syria
UAVs were widely used by the belligerents in the Syrian civil war. Open sources note that on April 27, 2017, an Israeli MIM-104D missile of the PATRIOT complex shot down a Syrian army drone, possibly either an ABADIL or MOHAJER drone manufactured by Ghods Aviation Industries, or an Iranian YASIR UAV manufactured by Iran Aviation Industries Organization; they were all supplied to the Syrian army by Iran. Meanwhile, on June 8, 2017, an Iranian SHAHED-129 drone was shot down in the Syrian sky by an F-15E Strike EAGLE fighter, and 12 days later, a second SHAHEO-129 drone was shot down by an F-15E fighter in the south of the country.
Israeli anti-aircraft missiles MIM-104D showed their best again on September 19, 2017, destroying an unknown drone operated by Hezbollah, which was trying to enter Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights in the northeast of the country. About a year ago, on the night of January 5-6, 2018, 10 homemade UAVs equipped with explosives were launched towards the Russian naval base in Tartus, and three attacked the Khmeimim airbase. According to the Ministry of Defense, seven drones were destroyed by the Pantsir-C1 anti-aircraft missile and cannon system, and three others were planted with unnamed electronic warfare systems. From open sources it follows that in October 2015, the Russian army deployed several ground-based electronic warfare systems in the Syrian theater, including 1L269 Krasukha-2 and 1RL257 Krasukha-4, which are capable of suppressing frequencies in the ranges 2, 3-3, 7 GHz and 8, 5-17, 7 GHz, along with the Leer-2 electronic warfare systems based on Tigr-M vehicles. The latter system operates in the 30 MHz to 3 GHz range.
Media reports said that the drones that attacked the Russian base were modified from commercially available radio-controlled models, which were then equipped mainly with mortar rounds. These drones are often controlled by a radio channel in the 300 MHz - 3 GHz range, so the Leer-2 complex may have jammed. In addition, such drones must be monitored within line of sight, that is, due to the peculiarities of radio wave propagation in the decimeter range, the Leer-2 complex had the advantage that it could use a significant part of its energy to jam control signals at a relatively short range.
Jam so jam
The approach adopted by the Russian army in neutralizing the latest drone attacks largely reflects the two methods adopted by the armies of many countries to defeat reconnaissance and attack drones - mainly the defeat of the threat occurs through a combination of kinetic and electronic impacts. The US military has been quite active over the past couple of years in the fight against the UAV threat. In October 2017, the American division of Leonardo, DRS, was awarded a contract worth up to $ 42 million for the MILDS (Mobile, Low, Slow UAV Integrated Defense System), which began testing the same month. Presented at the AUSA 2017 exhibition, the MILDS system can be installed on the Oshkosh M-ATV armored vehicle. Together, several types of sensors make up the MILDS complex located on two M-ATVs. At the first, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment from DRS is installed, which includes traditional optoelectronic and infrared sensors capable of detecting and tracking UAVs, and according to the available information, it can be concluded that this machine in the future can also receive an electronic warfare kit capable of jamming radio frequency channels between UAVs and their control stations.
It is worth noting that in the field of countering UAVs, the use of active electronic suppression to jam the control channels of unmanned aerial vehicles can perform two different tasks. The first, direct jamming, can be used to disrupt the radio frequency channel, thus, the operator is deprived of the ability to control his UAV. Second, electronic jamming can be used as an entry point to intercept the control channel and then gain control over the drone.
The latter approach, although more sophisticated, allows the interception station operators to "take over" the drone and land it safely. This capability can be especially useful when the UAV operates in populated areas or in an area of heavy air traffic, where it can pose a danger to other ships.
The second M-ATV car of the MILDS complex is equipped with a radar, possibly transmitting in the X-band (8, 5-10, 68 GHz). In this case, the antenna is small enough to be installed on a similar platform, while it is capable of providing the range required for detecting a UAV and further destroying it in a kinetic way, possibly with a standard car machine gun or a remotely controlled weapon module. Reports from the AUSA exhibition even said that DRS was considering introducing a small drone into the complex of two M-ATVs, which could be launched from one of the machines to carry out an attack on the intruder drone, although representatives of the company declined to discuss the topic. To date, the US Army has not announced any schedules or firm plans for the procurement of the MILDS system.
Except MILDS system
In addition to the MILDS system, the US Army acquired several manual anti-drone systems in 2017. SRC has been awarded a $ 65 million contract for the purchase of 15 Silent ARCHER systems. Army sources said the contract for the purchase of the Silent ARCHER system was aimed at meeting the general urgent needs to intercept slow and low-flying UAVs that could potentially carry explosives. The basis of the Silent ARCHER system is a radar and an optocoupler system for detecting the device, as well as electronic equipment for jamming the radio frequency control channel. In addition, the software that controls Silent ARCHER is able to determine if the drone is operating alone or in a swarm.
For the past two years, the US Army has studied other systems, including the Anti-UAV Defense System (AUDS), which, like the previously described MILDS system, uses optoelectronics and ground surveillance and fire control radars as the basis of its sensor kit. The AUDS system employs a camera and two unrevealed aerial surveillance radars, each providing 180 ° azimuth coverage. When UAVs are detected, AUDS operators can direct electronic jamming against the drone, using a directional signal with sufficient gain to create electronic noise and drown out the signal between the UAV and the operator. It is worth noting that some drones are equipped with an automatic return-to-home function; in the event of a malfunction of the control channel, the device automatically returns to the take-off point, thus avoiding the danger of being shot down or intercepted. However, one of the disadvantages of radio frequency approaches to countering UAVs is that every time a signal is transmitted, there is a possibility that the enemy will detect and locate its source. Then, an electronic attack in the form of counter-radio countermeasures or a kinetic attack can be carried out in order to destroy the source of jamming the drone control channel.
In addition to systems such as AUDS and vehicle-mounted systems such as the Silent ARCHER and MILDS described above, the US military has adopted several manual anti-drone systems that allow an individual soldier to defend small tactical units such as squads and platoons. from drone attacks. The two most famous systems in service are the DroneDefender from Battelle and the DRONEBUSTER from Radio Hill Technologies. The DroneDefender system, which looks like a gun, can be used to direct a powerful beam of RF energy towards the UAV to interfere with the channel between the device and the operator. DroneDefender's intuitive design allows it to jam drones up to 400 meters away. The DRONEBUSTER does a similar job by interfering in the GPS band and the industrial, scientific, and medical radio service that the vast majority of commercial drones operate on. The industrial, scientific and medical frequency range ranges from 6.78 MHz to 245 GHz, although this range may vary depending on the frequency spectrum allocation. The signal is the same GPS. typically transmitted at frequencies from 1.64 GHz to 1.575 GHz.
German initiatives
Europe is also actively developing in the field of anti-drone technology, both civilian and military structures are engaged in this. Several flights of civilian UAVs over nuclear power plants in France in 2014 demonstrated vulnerabilities in the security systems of such structures. Likewise, the landing of a drone with a camera right in front of Chancellor Merkel in Dresden highlighted the need to protect the population from the misuse of such vehicles. “The Merkel case was the starting point for the security community, from that point on, the drone threat was taken seriously,” said a spokesman for Rhode and Schwarz. Rohde and Schwarz have partnered with ESG and Diehl Defense to create a number of anti-drone systems, including GUARDION, which uses radar optoelectronics and acoustic sensors to detect UAVs. All subsystems and associated software are housed in a large van and trailer. All subsystems are controlled by the TARANIS software developed by GUARDION, and the entire complex is serviced by one operator. "The GUARDION system is fully operational and already serves several public and private organizations, in particular the German car company Volkswagen."
The development of the GUARDION system, along with the development of other anti-drone systems in other countries, indicates that drones are of increased concern, serving as reconnaissance and strike assets on and off the battlefield. Their use will only expand in the future, because with such relatively inexpensive but effective means, at least an asymmetric advantage can be obtained. As an example, recent events in Israel and Syria in the military sphere and in Germany and France in the civilian sphere could be a dress rehearsal for the expansion of dangerous drone use in the future.
