Invulnerable drones, works, lasers: what technologies will change the war in Ukraine in 2025
The new military technology once again turned the war in Ukraine in 2024. FPV-View drones (First Person View-Ed. ) In many cases, they are suppressed by radio electronic struggle, which both sides protect important objects. When the data is transmitted on the fiber, the UAV becomes invulnerable to suppress. The difficulty is that the cable is uniformly unwound, not torn and does not interfere with the copter to fly to the target. These problems were solved by engineers with the help of special coils.
Today, fiber optic drones fly 4-8 km on average, but some non-standard coils allow you to overcome 11 km. It is difficult to protect yourself from drones on the fiber, detectors and video interceptors do not help, because drones do not emit any signals. Technology will probably continue to develop in 2025, the developers will try to make UAVs more durable and far away. At the same time, the military will seek protection.
Commander of 414 Separate Brigade of Driving Unmanned Aviation Systems "Magyara Birds" Robert Brody reported that Ukrainians found a comprehensive solution to the problem: first special radars fix the approach of relatively slow copters, after which they are directed to the drone by the operator and the operator's command. destroys the threat.
According to our information, there are no more effective ways to combat such weapons, but in 2025 Ukrainian or Russian experts may well find new ones, and UAV developers will use countermeasures. This will develop another branch of the War of Drones. The Lieutenant of the Armed Forces with the call sign "Alex" is convinced that drones on the fiber can not completely displace the wireless FPV with analog radio.
Let them work more efficiently, but also cost much more, while disposable weapons should be cheap. "This is more of a kind of sniper rifle, which is used for the sake of 100%result, which will probably be able to beat the goals that are worth using such expensive drones, to drive infantry not their task is not their task, it is necessary to develop everything in the aggregate," the military said in his own posts.
Ukrainians actively make robotic machines that are designed to replace people on the battlefield and reduce loss of live power. In 2024, technologies have just begun to develop and spread among the military on both sides. As of March 2024, about 140 different terrestrial robotic complexes were registered on the Ukrainian State Platform Brave1.
They can lay mines on the path of the enemy, blow up with the goals, take out the wounded soldiers from the battlefield, deliver ammunition, suppress enemy UAVs by means of radio electronic wrestling, or shoot from various weapons, such as machine guns and grenade launchers.
In October 2024, the developer of the Ratel Latel Drone Series Taras Ostapchuk noted that in six months the number of such equipment on the front had increased significantly, the forces of Ukraine's defense used it even in the Kursk region of Russia. The Russians themselves also advanced in this direction, showed many interesting prototypes, perhaps many of them have launched in mass production.
"In my personal opinion, more technological robots should be expected in terms of communication, increasing work time, unification, and movement in the direction of artificial intelligence," - summed up Taras Ostapchuk. The widespread introduction of land drones has led to the fact that in early February 2025, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov declared the establishment of separate units of the Armed Forces specializing in them.
It should be expected that in the coming months the production, supply and use of robotic complexes will increase, and engineers will offer and implement new technologies to make them even more efficient. On December 16, 2024, the commander of unmanned systems (SBS) Vadim Sukharevsky within the conference "European Defense Industry: Prospects for Cooperation with the Ukrainian Industry" stated that Ukraine created a laser Trizub laser system capable of "knocking down fighter jets".
He stressed that only a few countries in the world have weapons of this type. His words have caused a lot of discussions among experts. In an interview with Radio Liberty, Sukharevsky added that "laser technologies are already striking at a certain height. " According to him, the Armed Forces command appealed to the system developers in search of solutions to combat Russian UAVs, in particular with "Shahheda".
James Black, Assistant Director of the Defense and Security Research and Security Group in Rand Europe, suggested that Ukraine has started using high -energy laser systems in combat in a comment to Business Insider, albeit mostly experimentally. In his opinion, it is difficult to use and transport on a large scale for a number of reasons for a number of reasons. In addition, it is problematic to combine lasers with other air defense systems and military operations.
But the Ukrainian military air intelligence officer Alexander Karpyuk in his recent post on Facebook was more optimistic. He says that six months ago he watched a video of trident trials, and the system was even then knocking down Mavic and aircraft type from a few kilometers. For a long time, the indicators did not suit the commander, so they did not talk about it in public. It should be expected that the technology will be used and improved in the near future.
"If Sukharevsky started talking about it in an interview, then the funds were able to refine to a level that can already be placed for test combat work," - said Alexander. This technology can change the placement of forces in the war if Ukraine fully mastered it and begins to be used to protect against drones or aircraft.
A laser shot is much cheaper than a rocket and even an ammunition for anti -aircraft gun, so the deployment of such systems will significantly reduce the average cost of targets and will protect the shortage of defeat. Laser weapons do not need to be recharged as anti-aircraft missile complexes, so it will be more difficult for Russians to overload the Ukrainian air defense system.
On the other hand, technology is not capable of solving all the problems of air defense, because it has a number of restrictions, the first of which is weather conditions. Rain or fog significantly reduces the efficiency of the beam.
The reconnaissance UAVs of Russia have always delivered many problems to Ukraine, but they became especially relevant in 2024, when the unmanned aircraft "Orlan", SuperCam and Zala learned to overcome the "veil" of the lace to work in the deep rear, attracting rockets and "lancets" on important objects. In response, the Ukrainian military learned to knock them down the so -called "anti -aircraft" drones. Initially, these were upgraded, then aircraft -type UAVs appeared for air interception.
This is already a large -scale phenomenon in many areas of the front, engineers are experimenting with technologies of guidance and damage to goals in the air, try different methods. Shahaned and geranium drones were also the potential purpose for the interceptors drones. Especially for their destruction in Ukraine are developed models of Sing, Vatra and others, but they are not widely used yet.