New Drone War: As Ukraine and Russia can defeat UAVs on the fiber

The new-type FPV-outers are equipped with coils with light fiber optic cable, which is unwound in flight and provides communication with the operator. Such technology does not emit radio signals, so it cannot be detected or suppressed by electronic means. In addition, you can not intercept the video signal, as in the case of ordinary FPV-Dron, and see where they fly. However, UAVs with fiber have disadvantages that will soon be used by both Ukrainian and Russian military.

There is no one else's finished systems, but the side, which will take them on, will have a huge advantage on the battlefield. So the Ministry of Eelectronic Industry of Russia asks local developers to find out how to identify and potentially destroy such drones. Many ideas offer acoustic (sound) and visual methods of detection.

The Business Insider International Agency has learned that the Ukrainian technology company Kara Dag Technologies has proposed to use acoustic and visual signatures in combination with advanced data processing methods to detect fiber drones. The acoustic method involves the presence of a large number of microphones that can catch the characteristic noise of the blades and engines of the UAV propeller.

Drones that need to be pulled enough coils with a cable need a lot of draft, so they work louder than their wireless counterparts. The main problem of acoustic detection was the range because the noise subsides with distance. Most microphones hardly distinguish drone noise from surrounding sounds at a distance of about 100 meters. Because of this, many sensors aimed at the sky are needed to grasp the foreign sounds less.

Visual detection works in a similar way, only instead of microphones uses cameras. There are problems here, for example, small FPV-aroma on the backdrop of the sky look difficult to distinguish from birds or aircraft. Kopters with fiber usually fly low above the ground, but this task is not simplified, because the viewing angle is limited. Another potential method of detection is focused on the fiber optic cables that leave drones.

The fibers are very thin, and it is difficult to see the naked eye, but it is much easier in the infrared range. Some advise you to use a diffuse infrared laser and infrared chambers that can notice both cables and hot UAVs. Both acoustic and visual detection methods should determine very weak signals among a large number of noise. Achievements in data processing technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, should facilitate this task, enhancing each other.

Kara Dag Technologies develops such a system for Ukraine, using extensive technical knowledge in the field of information processing. Forbes reminded that Russia has extensive experience and opportunities in the production of drones, and Ukraine is able to quickly find new solutions and introduce innovations. As soon as one side finds the remedy against drones on the fiber, the other, most likely, will quickly reproduce it, and the war will move to a new stage.