Head of the russian Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (TsKBR), Dmitry Kuzyakin, claims that the russian invasion forces operating in Ukraine need to create "trained teams to combat FPV drones." In his opinion, "FPV countermeasures should be left to specialists" and for this, it is necessary to organize several mobile groups that will fight the operators of FPV drones in specific areas of the frontline.
"These will be people specially trained to destroy ground-stationed FPV equipment and FPV squads," he noted, stressing that such mobile groups must undergo training and have all the essential equipment and techniques to combat FPV threat. "Today, russia has both the former and the latter," Kuzyakin assured.
Read more: Brave1 Seeks Tech Solutions to Combat FPV and Commercial Drone Threats
The director of the UAV development center states that nowadays, it's "useless" to demand from assault infantry, artillerymen, or tank crews to fight FPV drones themselves, and the whole idea to reduce counter-FPV warfare to simply suppressing the drones is misleading. Kuzyakin is sure that the russian military is losing time trying to invent an omnipotent electronic-warfare device, an "all-in-one EW panacea" against all UAVs.
He admits that FPV drones operated by the Ukrainian Defense Forces "cause much discomfort" to the russian troops, so Kuzyakin insists on establishing a systematic effort aimed at countering not just drones but directly the Ukrainian squads operating them.
Dmitry Kuzyakin does not detail what such specialized training would include. Still, his suggestion is indicative of russian efforts to find new ways of fighting FPV drones. The affordability and versatility of small copters with primitive explosives, suited for anti-armor, anti-personnel, and deep-rear combat missions, has already made them an indispensable weapon under conditions of a constant critical shortage of artillery ammunition and a real problem for the russian forces.
At the same time, the russians utilize the advantages of unmanned technologies as well, so Ukrainians develop their own means of countering both simplistic FPV drones and more sophisticated ISR and attack drones. They tend to balance between working on new EW systems against the equipment and new methods of locating enemy drone operators.
In the face of evolving EW systems, Ukrainian engineers also pursue the technologies enabling FPV drones to operate autonomously, and thus negate any effect from enemy jammers, such as the "machine-vision" based on artificial neural networks. Earlier Defense Express covered what kind of counter-UAV solutions Ukraine's government-run Brave1 tech startup cluster is looking for.
Read more: How Ukrainian Inventors Teach AI-Assisted FPV Drones with Machine Vision (Video)
