30th Jan, 2025 - Ukraine's Magyar Birds drone unit now employs a system to counter Russian fiber-optic guided FPV drones, according to The War Zone website.
The venerable Ukrainian military drone unit says it has developed a way to counter an increasingly deadly weapon - Russia's first-person-view (FPV) drones. Such drones are connected to their controllers by fiber-optic cables rather than radio waves, which makes them immune to jamming and other means of electronic warfare.
Magyar Birds drone unit claims to have devised a system using mobile radar that provides early warning of incoming FPV drones several kilometers away. Once a threat is detected, the unit sends in its own drones to intercept the Russian drone before it reaches its target.
The brigade's commander, Robert Brovdi (call sign Magyar), said, “The detection and destruction program (for Russian FPV fiber-optic guided drones) already exists and is operational.”
Brovdi posted a video on his Telegram channel purportedly showing one of his drones destroying a Russian fiber-optic guided FPV drone. What's striking is the large spool of wire at the rear of the Russian drone, which has an extremely thin but tough cable wrapped around it, connecting the drone to its controller. This feature makes an already formidable weapon even more difficult to deal with. Because communication is unaffected by low-level flight or even the environment inside buildings, they can fly close to the ground and even hunt deep into enclosed areas as long as the cable is intact.
Although Brovdi praised the system, he did not specify what kind of mobile radar his forces were using. It is likely to be a microwave radar system, similar to the Ku-band radars used for counter-drones. The short-wavelength nature of such radars allows them to better detect small, relatively slow-moving drones. The downside is that their detection range is extremely limited to a few miles. So, while these sensors are effective at detecting and tracking drones, the warning time is short, and the vehicle can move in and out of their detection range quickly. However, if such radars could be forward deployed to the front lines, they could provide critical detection of incoming FPV drones in a specific area and provide targeting for fast-reacting anti-FPV drones.
Magyar Birds' system is the latest in a series of Russian-Ukrainian mutual games over FPV drones and countermeasures. With the increasing role of FPV drones on the battlefield, their importance has become comparable to that of traditional artillery.
Both sides are using drones to shoot down each other's drones. This was first seen over Ukraine in Oct 2022, when a Ukrainian DJI Imperial (Mavic) drone shot down a Russian drone.
In the summer of 2024, videos emerged of Ukraine using FPV drones to shoot down larger and more expensive Russian reconnaissance and attack drones. Today, Ukraine has a variety of drones specialized in hunting other drones, and Russia is developing and deploying similar systems.
FPV drones hunt fiber-optic guided FPV drones, in part by exploiting the latter's greatest strength and turning it into a weakness. While fiber-optic cables make them immune to interference, the large spools of wire required for long-distance maneuvering add extra weight, resulting in slower speeds and reduced maneuverability.
In a Telegram post, Brovdi urged Ukraine to quickly deploy mobile radars capable of detecting small drones to the front lines.
He suggests, “The Army must quickly and massively equip the front line with mobile versions of radars at 2-4 km intervals with conventional FPV fighters to destroy enemy fiber-optic guided FPV drones intercepted by the mobile radars.”
With drone threats proliferating globally, even in peaceful areas, such radars are in extremely high demand, even on superyachts. The same systems could be used to monitor drone activity around military bases and other critical installations, many of which are still not equipped.
It is worth noting that these sensors, especially at the commercial level, are themselves vulnerable to detection and attack, as their signal emissions can be detected, localized, and quickly targeted. While the deployment of such sensors on manned or unmanned ground vehicles contributes to their survivability, these systems remain highly vulnerable.
Given that Ukraine is fighting on a front of approximately 600 miles within its territory as well as in the Kursk region of Russia, at least for the time being, this system can at best be used as a point defense system for defending critical areas or providing support for limited advancement operations. However, this suggests that advanced anti-drone sensors will be critical shortly, especially on active battlefields, wherever troops are located.
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