And now, let's focus on these shots. They're an exclusive aerial view of the Donbass area. On the border of Luhansk Oblast, in particular. The positions of the LPR People's Militia are down there. They were shot from a UAV, that had been sent by Ukrainian siloviki. One can vividly see a thing tied to the aerial device. Even a non-professional can easily say that it's a hand grenade, An F1 anti-personnel fragmentation grenade. It was supposed to be dropped not far from the front line, but the UAV was shot down and the grenade exploded without hurting anyone. There was no damage. A close investigation of the device revealed its markings. It was a Phantom, made in the USA. It's got to Donbass through a well-known middle-man, also from the United States, for aerial reconnaissance and observation, supposedly, for diversion, in fact.
The representatives of LPR say that such pseudo-harmless UAVs have been seen at least four times. Apparently, these UAVs with hand grenades on board will be actively used by Ukrainian siloviki in the future. This know-how very obviously reminds of terrorists' actions.
Our guest today is Ekaterina Grigorova.
- Good evening, Ekaterina.
- Good evening.
- The tactic is nothing new, is it?
- It's not new, indeed, terrorists of all kinds have used it many times. The supply chain is the same.
One of the first to use UAVs as a weapon were Afghan extremists from the Taliban movement, banned in Russia. Drones were certainly commonly used in Syria and Iraq. And if the first ones were handmade aerial devices, ISIS terrorists started using professional equipment over time.
This, for instance, is the same drone made in the US, that was shot down above the LPR. It's been upgraded by Syrian ISIS terrorists. It may hold up to two grenades. Extremists used a shuttlecock as a stabilizer. The geolocation system of such a device works without using GPS. Its significant weakness is that the drone is blind, deaf, and useless without an operator that should be at the distance of 500 yards to 2 miles.
In order for terrorists to use UAVs more commonly, ISIS organized so-called schools of media training and development, where young people and even children were taught to control drones and to apply tactics of surreptitious actions near enemy formations. It did not stop them that the percentage of detonation of pipe bombs released from drones was 60% at best. They were able to only slightly injure personnel and damage hardware within a radius of 10 yards from the impact. It didn't bother the extremists that the newest drone navigators often didn't manage to navigate well, and dropped grenades all over the place. A few precise hits of pipe bombs, however, from drones to hardware were widely promoted by ISIS propagandists on the Internet.
A substantial risk may be posed by a drone air raid. But even such aerial attacks are easily reflected these days.
Alexey Leonkov, military expert, Arsenal of the Fatherland: "The combination of electromagnetic warfare and air defense systems were the key to effectiveness. When there was another attack on Khmeimim Air Base, roughly a half of UAVs were shot down by air defense and electronic warfare landed the rest".
No matter how advanced a drone is, it's still vulnerable. If it's controlled by a navigator, one can override it. A drone can be detected with monitoring radio channels. The same frequencies are usually used. More standard models of drones are detected through monitoring Wi-Fi networks. Microwave radiation can be used to shoot down a flying group of small drones.
Alexey Leonkov: "There are quite big examples of experimental systems, on treads, even, that can serve as a, let's say, special device, a microwave gun that can fire from a distance. If it detects a flying group of UAVs, it can bring them down. Moreover, this ultra-high frequency's impact on UAV electronics may be transferred in the space and aimed from various distances. And it impacts not only one drone, but a whole group of them".
This technology is developed in America, Asia, and our country as well. Today, representatives of Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies said the tests of EMP guns have already begun on ranges. Three years ago, it was said that high-frequency equipment was in development. It's able to defuse UAV radio electronics and the warheads of precision weapons. It was planned to be installed on the Buk missile system's chassis. The information, however, has not been confirmed officially. The experts said, nevertheless, that such a system could have a firing range of more than six kilometers.
- Thank you. That was Ekaterina Grigorova on what can counter the terrorists' technology.
