About two weeks passed from the day when russians met a problem of the mass destruction of their reconnaissance drones to their implementation of the idea regarding the possibilities of protection against Ukrainian FPV drones. It was the installation of rear-view cameras, along with other countermeasures, that appeared in proposals on the profile russian Telegram channel.
The first case of installing such a camera became known due to the fact that the russian UAV equipped in this way was already "landed" by the warriors of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. This was reported by Ukrainian techno-blogger Serhiy "Flash" Beskrestnov:
Read more: It Was a Matter of Time: Anti-Aircraft FPVs Appear in russian Forces, Starting New Page in Aerial Warfare
In the photos released by the blogger, you can see a hacked russian reconnaissance UAV (most likely of the ZALA 421 type) with a miniature camera that is connected to a custom device from a russian manufacturer, which is also equipped with RHCP antennas used in FPV drones. It is thanks to this camera that the examination is carried out in the rear hemisphere. This allows operators to see the threat in the form of an approaching anti-aircraft drone in time and take countermeasures.
It is worth noting that reconnaissance UAVs are not fighters or aerobatic aircraft and they cannot perform aerobatics. Because of this, one of the countermeasures can be to try to break away from the pursuit at high speed. This tactic can be successful due to the fact that the time the FPV drone stays in the air is quite limited, while increasing the speed of the anti-aircraft drone will drain its battery faster.
In any case, the overall effectiveness of such a solution is questionable. However, the very fact that the enemy moved to the practical implementation of new means to withstand anti-aircraft FPV drones rather quickly deserves to be taken into account by the Ukrainian military. Obviously, the list of countermeasures that will be used by the russians to counter Ukrainian anti-aircraft drones will grow. In particular, the enemy might try to install small EW devices on their reconnaissance UAVs, which, first of all, should work on the most common frequencies.
And given that the russian federation began to use FPV drones to combat Ukrainian reconnaissance UAVs, although the first known attack by a russian anti-aircraft FPV drone was unsuccessful, the Defense Forces of Ukraine also need to have a set of their own countermeasures.
Read more: The UK Ministry of Defence Buys 300 Large FPV Drones for Ukraine
