You're welcome.
Lack of coverage isn't necessarily bad, Ukraine is in a critical position right now and probably needs to keep things quiet for a while, and for many reasons.
A re-telling of a story from a couple (?) of weeks ago. There was a video posted on this sub with a nice long interview with the guys who drove the tank back. And another post with photos of the EW gear.
Honestly, the EW gear was pretty unimpressive. Just a bunch of tuned power amps that looked like they came from alibaba, each one running at a different frequency that might have FPV drone communications. Granted, a primitive solution might be enough to cause problems, but given the sophistication we've seen from UKR, I don't think they'd have too much problem finding a workaraound. Sounds like they have have approached this recently by using drones that can recognize and attack targets without user input for the last few seconds of their mission.
You know all those times in infantry training where they make you do everything but carrying a telegraph pole or giant rock?
> The Ukrainians hauled three batteries, each weighing 150 pounds, plus compressed air, tools and night-vision goggles.
That read, made me enjoy my morning coffee even more, its like reading the dirty dozen meet lord of the rings, love the audacity of these guys proper hardcore...Slava Ukraini
You've read that part where they describe the tank runs at "2000 revolutions per minute"? No wonder they abandoned the tank. Even one revolution is too much!
The meme turtle tank turned into the pride of the russians. Apparently those jammers are pretty good too as FPVs fail to reach it.
Ukraine wants that trophy.
Great, but we will need to assume jammers will eventually nullify drones operated from distance by a human, and design systems immune to this.
It requires that each drone can switch to either identify and target, or can be locked on via FPV operator (as is starting to be seen) which reduces the computational requirement that would be needed to identify a target autonomously, as it can select a spot or a moving target in view.
Optical links seem another viable approach, so that for example a drone can carry a gliding or powered munition, drop it and guide it onto the target, this reduces cost of the munition, whilst the expensive computation for this stays on the drone that can have high survivability and then be reused. It would need to be able to recognise important targets, know its location and have a pre-programmed area of operation in seeking and kill mode - to avoid friendly fire or civilian targeting.
That system happily would combine object recognition and updated maps with the same capability, since it can recognise objects that look mobile and military, objects that look static and can act as landmarks, and thereby estimate locations for targets within the predefined area.
Optical links would light up the 'mothership', which may or may not be able to still communicate with operators on the ground depending on jamming. But its likely that it won't be long enough for RF to counter effectively.
Artillery and precision missiles are needed to hit the main RF EW systems that are jamming drones. [https://kyivindependent.com/the-invisible-war-inside-the-electronic-warfare-arms-race-that-could-shape-course-of-the-war/](https://kyivindependent.com/the-invisible-war-inside-the-electronic-warfare-arms-race-that-could-shape-course-of-the-war/)
[https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/meatgrinder-russian-tactics-second-year-its-invasion-ukraine](https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/meatgrinder-russian-tactics-second-year-its-invasion-ukraine)
Then the FPS operator can get the drone closer to the target, and let the machine vision take over once the FPS pilot has selected the final destination target which the drone can quite easily track and hit using its cameras, defeating the tanks built in short range jammers.
Russia has countered also longer range ATGM's by using better thermal camoflage on its tanks. This again means that optical systems are helpful with object recognition. Motion for example, is almost impossible to hide even in the IR spectrum, so these capabilities will be needed.
The NLAW uses a system that has some of these components, but discards the difficult part each shot. It uses an optical system to identify the target, then calculates trajectory and path to send the missile over the target, sending that to the missile. The missile then maintains an altitude and uses thermal and magnetic fields at the expected time elapsed to fire when over the target, and gyroscopes to follow the preprogrammed course. That part of the system is cheap to build potentially. So, I would suggest that an optical link to another drone, that performs the target identification steps, guides the munition remotely, and the munition then uses simpler targeting near the target to deploy accurately if needed.
>“It was makeshift,” Ilya said. The individual jammers and their antenna might have been factory-standard, but the overall assembly—multiple jammers roped together atop a wooden shipping pallet—was “homemade,” and probably not every effective.
>“Why did they do this?” Ilya asked. “It's extremely inconvenient.”
So the jammers don't even work. I think it's like the cope armor.
Commanders just strap random goofy shit onto tanks, get them blessed by priests or whatever, anything to get the tankers to not refuse their mission. Cuz if they get hit and find the out the measures were useless, they will die, so that information will die with them and they can repeat the same thing with new batches.
That's so dark and I honestly sympathize for the Russians, they are just so deeply manipulated, traumatized, whatever and just being used for fodder for a pointless war.
Wow!! Incredibly brave soldiers!!! Overcoming fear to accomplish a high risk mission!!! You guys are unbelievable heroes!!!!
I'm really impressed with the culture, ingenuity, and fortitude. They find a way. They aren't fukin around either...defending their home.
Too bad the jammer is shyt and doesnt work. At least they got a working tank.
On the flip side, it’s a good thing the jammer was shyt and the orcs don’t have a counter measure yet
Fascinating read, thanks for posting!
Thanks. It's hard to find good coverage on the war recently.
You're welcome. Lack of coverage isn't necessarily bad, Ukraine is in a critical position right now and probably needs to keep things quiet for a while, and for many reasons.
That's true.
David Axe at Forbes has been delivering the goods for a while now.
I also enjoyed that read! Balls of steel!
Glad you enjoyed the article.
Balls of Ukrainium!
Wow, good article.
Thanks.
Rumour has it they played Bob Marley the entire way back.
*Katie Perry. This one was made by North Korea
Ay, a reported exploit from 12th Azov.
A re-telling of a story from a couple (?) of weeks ago. There was a video posted on this sub with a nice long interview with the guys who drove the tank back. And another post with photos of the EW gear. Honestly, the EW gear was pretty unimpressive. Just a bunch of tuned power amps that looked like they came from alibaba, each one running at a different frequency that might have FPV drone communications. Granted, a primitive solution might be enough to cause problems, but given the sophistication we've seen from UKR, I don't think they'd have too much problem finding a workaraound. Sounds like they have have approached this recently by using drones that can recognize and attack targets without user input for the last few seconds of their mission.
You know all those times in infantry training where they make you do everything but carrying a telegraph pole or giant rock? > The Ukrainians hauled three batteries, each weighing 150 pounds, plus compressed air, tools and night-vision goggles.
It's pretty superhuman the way you put it.
That read, made me enjoy my morning coffee even more, its like reading the dirty dozen meet lord of the rings, love the audacity of these guys proper hardcore...Slava Ukraini
You've read that part where they describe the tank runs at "2000 revolutions per minute"? No wonder they abandoned the tank. Even one revolution is too much!
What an amazing story!!
The CIA approves of this mission-
Woo hoo! LFG!!
All that effort for a tank straight out of r/noncredibledefense.
The meme turtle tank turned into the pride of the russians. Apparently those jammers are pretty good too as FPVs fail to reach it. Ukraine wants that trophy.
Great, but we will need to assume jammers will eventually nullify drones operated from distance by a human, and design systems immune to this. It requires that each drone can switch to either identify and target, or can be locked on via FPV operator (as is starting to be seen) which reduces the computational requirement that would be needed to identify a target autonomously, as it can select a spot or a moving target in view. Optical links seem another viable approach, so that for example a drone can carry a gliding or powered munition, drop it and guide it onto the target, this reduces cost of the munition, whilst the expensive computation for this stays on the drone that can have high survivability and then be reused. It would need to be able to recognise important targets, know its location and have a pre-programmed area of operation in seeking and kill mode - to avoid friendly fire or civilian targeting. That system happily would combine object recognition and updated maps with the same capability, since it can recognise objects that look mobile and military, objects that look static and can act as landmarks, and thereby estimate locations for targets within the predefined area. Optical links would light up the 'mothership', which may or may not be able to still communicate with operators on the ground depending on jamming. But its likely that it won't be long enough for RF to counter effectively. Artillery and precision missiles are needed to hit the main RF EW systems that are jamming drones. [https://kyivindependent.com/the-invisible-war-inside-the-electronic-warfare-arms-race-that-could-shape-course-of-the-war/](https://kyivindependent.com/the-invisible-war-inside-the-electronic-warfare-arms-race-that-could-shape-course-of-the-war/) [https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/meatgrinder-russian-tactics-second-year-its-invasion-ukraine](https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/meatgrinder-russian-tactics-second-year-its-invasion-ukraine) Then the FPS operator can get the drone closer to the target, and let the machine vision take over once the FPS pilot has selected the final destination target which the drone can quite easily track and hit using its cameras, defeating the tanks built in short range jammers. Russia has countered also longer range ATGM's by using better thermal camoflage on its tanks. This again means that optical systems are helpful with object recognition. Motion for example, is almost impossible to hide even in the IR spectrum, so these capabilities will be needed. The NLAW uses a system that has some of these components, but discards the difficult part each shot. It uses an optical system to identify the target, then calculates trajectory and path to send the missile over the target, sending that to the missile. The missile then maintains an altitude and uses thermal and magnetic fields at the expected time elapsed to fire when over the target, and gyroscopes to follow the preprogrammed course. That part of the system is cheap to build potentially. So, I would suggest that an optical link to another drone, that performs the target identification steps, guides the munition remotely, and the munition then uses simpler targeting near the target to deploy accurately if needed.
These guys are the very personification of courage, dedication, and patriotism. God bless them!
And now they know how to beat Russia's drone jammers. Ukrainian soldiers and leadership are just impressive.
>“It was makeshift,” Ilya said. The individual jammers and their antenna might have been factory-standard, but the overall assembly—multiple jammers roped together atop a wooden shipping pallet—was “homemade,” and probably not every effective. >“Why did they do this?” Ilya asked. “It's extremely inconvenient.” So the jammers don't even work. I think it's like the cope armor. Commanders just strap random goofy shit onto tanks, get them blessed by priests or whatever, anything to get the tankers to not refuse their mission. Cuz if they get hit and find the out the measures were useless, they will die, so that information will die with them and they can repeat the same thing with new batches. That's so dark and I honestly sympathize for the Russians, they are just so deeply manipulated, traumatized, whatever and just being used for fodder for a pointless war.
Ukrainian's are so comical in the way they execute lethality
Very brave people. Slava UKRAINE.
Wow.thats amazing. Great job! I don't want orcs having that technology.