Fake signals, dummy drones to bypass Russian defenses

BLUF: More than 50 percent of all the drones that the Ukrainian army launches at Russia are dummy drones — cheaper versions that sometimes don’t even have explosives. Other notes: Serhii Sternenko explains the main challenges in countering Shahed drones. And MITS Capital/Victory Drones puts out an accelerator call for 20 Ukrainian defense startups.

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THE BIG STORY: Subterfuge through radar signals and dummy drones

Long-range strikes on Russian territory are a difficult task for Ukraine because of Russia’s advanced electronic warfare (Read our coverage on Russian EW here) and air defense assets. 

To increase the percentage of targets it can hit, Ukraine is launching many drones simultaneously to overload Russia’s defenses. 

“More than half of all the drones [the Ukrainian military] launches are dummy drones,” said Viktor Lokotkov, CMO at Airlogix, a major Ukrainian drone company. 

Dummies are typically cheaper drones used to overload enemy air defense. They are made of cheaper materials and have weaker explosives — and sometimes no warhead at all. 

As part of its deception, a dummy drone often simulates a larger target, said the co-founder of the Ukrainian company that produces the Rubaka kamikaze drone. 

By imitating larger targets, enemy radar will not see a small drone, but a large one or even a missile.

How does fake target simulation work?

A radar sends out electromagnetic signals and waits for their reflection back from objects in the air. The Luneburg lens collects those waves and sends them back, but distorts the signal form and makes the drone look bigger, explains Oleksa, a representative of Warbirds, a Ukrainian drone company.

It is more difficult to make a dummy drone imitate a missile, the manufacturers explained. Beyond the drone’s size — termed ‘wing scattering area’ — the radar can see a target's flight speed, and its movement. Missiles tend to move close to the speed of sound. 

That's why Ukrainian and Western companies have given Ukraine drones with jet engines to fly at speeds over 600 km/h, like the British Qunetiq Banshee Jet 80 or Ukrainian UJ-22 Topaz. Ukrainians can use them for striking and/or for overwhelming Russia’s defense if dozens of them are launched at once.

GPS-denied territory

Electronic warfare can interfere with GPS and other signals, which poses a challenge for all kinds of drones. The Rubaka kamikaze drone addresses this via an inertial navigation module.

“This allows us to work without any satellite signal at all [to] effectively carry out pre-planned missions,” explained the Rubaka staffer.

Russia is not able to jam GPS in the entire country, so when a drone crosses the frontline area, it can pick GPS back up deeper inside enemy territory, Oleksa explains. 

Visual navigation works by using visual geometry. It compares satellite images with AI-based memory and pictures that an onboard camera captures. This comparison also allows for location detection, and it's done autonomously. 

Manufacturers install visual/inertial navigation systems OR controlled reception pattern antennas (designed to resist radio jamming/spoofing) together, and so they can be redundant to one another if communications go down. 

A major calculation when determining how to think strategically on this issue is the drone price. You can install a CRPA antenna and add visual navigation, but it will make the final product significantly more expensive. 

Russian mobile fire groups

Military mobile fire groups (MFG) — pickup trucks with machine guns that shoot down Russian drones and cruise missiles — roam throughout Ukraine during air raid alerts. Russia followed suit after Ukraine started launching deep strikes. But Russia has a very large territory, so it is impossible to completely cover it with the MFG, explains Oleksa. 

Ukraine has been expanding the roster it uses for deep strikes. OSINT researcher H I Sutton maintained a list of Ukrainian drones used for this purpose. As of September 2024, the number of drones is 25 different types.

Meanwhile, Russia is increasing domestic production of Shahed drones to attack Ukraine as well. It has a CRPA module, termed ‘Cometa,’ with 4–8 antennas inside, so it’s challenging for Ukrainians to spoof its GPS signal. 

A spoofing attack attempts to deceive a GNSS receiver, which digitally processes the signals from navigation satellites to provide position, velocity and time of the receiver, by broadcasting fake signals. It can force the drone to lose it positioning in the air.

Russians also set up SIM-cards or even Starlink dishes on their Shahed to make it even more complicated. 

Russia is also using EW signals to simulate missile launches on Ukrainian radar. This comes with sending a false flag signal to a rocket launcher, which can be intercepted by Ukrainians. Russians are also using cheaper drones like ‘Gerbera’ or ‘Parody’ to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense and trick it into expending expensive anti-aircraft missiles.

Battlefield innovation is constantly leading to new developments. Ukrainian inventors are focusing on the following areas: 

• detection by sound; 

• electronic warfare suppression;

• shooting down by new types of anti-air drones; 

• creating even more MFGs and training them on special simulators. (read our coverage on the latest development here).

Ukrainian companies are on the different stages of development of anti-drone drones. For instance, Wild Hornets is developing a drone-interceptor Sting to counter Shahed drones. It will operate at altitudes of up to 3 km and can reach speeds of over 160 km/h. Another example, is Vatra — it can reach speeds of over 230 km/h and at altitudes of up to 3-4 km.

BUSINESS LUNCH TOPICS: What our reporting shows!

1. Tech Force in UA has presented a new book: ‘Gunsmith's Guide’ (PDF): The publication is an exhaustive step-by-step explanation on how to supply weaponry to the Ukrainian military. The guide consists of 50 pages explaining important points, from how to safely hire an employee to how export regulations work.

2. What is slowing down Ukrainian military adoption of new tech. “We must get rid of all the Soviet rubbish that does not contribute to innovation,” said Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian volunteer who provides drones to the army.  

Ukrainian defense companies have no problem with developing new tech, but commanders in various branches of the military are resisting innovations, said Sternenko. Some commanders are opting not to use new interceptor FPV drones to strike down a Russian Zala or Orlan, for example. Military regulations don’t allow soldiers to act independently in such cases. 

3. Intercepting Russian Shaheds:

Sternenko named the main characteristics a drone needs in order to intercept a Shahed:

• Speed — 200-220 km/h;

• Time in the air —10-20 minutes;

• Range — up to 15 kilometers.

Currently, Ukrainian companies are working on these kinds of drones, and soon they will be tested on the battlefield.

4. Open call for Ukrainian startups: MITS Capital and Victory drones have announced a bootcamp for 20 defense tech teams for a three week training program. Upon completion of the program, participants will share a grant of $5,000 per team. During training, teams will address challenges in the miltech sector: production logistics, scaling, pitching, business communication and how to attract investment.

Bootcamp is seeking teams with a proof-of-concept working in these categories:

• Unmanned aerial vehicles;

• Unmanned ground vehicles;

• Unmanned underwater vehicles;

• Electronic warfare systems;

• Communications, optical, and acoustic intelligence systems;

• Mining/Demining;

• Software and AI;

• Ammunition.

The application period is open till November 24, 2024, via this link.

In Collaboration with CENTRE.UA – Ukrainian orders/legislation we’re tracking: 

Law No. 3311-IX of August 9, 2023
Initiated by: Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Changes Introduced: This law aims to encourage large investors to inject capital into Ukraine's economy. The state is ready to support projects that focus on industrial development (e.g., raw material processing), extraction of natural resources, transportation, logistics, medicine, etc. To qualify for such support, an investor must invest at least 12 million euros and implement the project within five years.

How it works:

• Introducing a new form of state support, namely partial compensation for the cost of construction of adjacent infrastructure;

• Introducing the possibility for an investor to start implementing a project prior to the conclusion of a special investment agreement and make investments in pre-project work (preparation of documentation, purchase of land, etc.) in the amount of 25 percent of the total amount of significant investments;

• Reducing the limit of significant investments made in investment objects prior to the conclusion of a special investment agreement and the number of new jobs created during the implementation of an investment project with significant investments to enable the involvement of a wider range of business entities, not only large but also medium-sized enterprises, in the investment process;

• Establishing time limits for finalizing, rather than returning, the documents submitted by the investor and the special investment agreement (no more than two months).

ON THE MOVE: Professional movement, promotions and industry news.

Know someone in the defense tech space who has made a professional move? Drop us a line at [email protected]! 

• Kvertus, manufacturer of EW systems, is looking for a PR manager and an SMM manager.

• Techosystem, public union of the Ukrainian tech ecosystem, is hiring a community manager.

30 SECOND ELEVATOR PITCH:

RMachine: Their unmanned ground vehicle holds a charge of up to two weeks in autonomous mode. The distance between operator and machine can extend up to 200 km. Their UGV has high cross-country ability while reducing the rollover threat due to its pneumatic suspension. 

“Our technology empowers operators to perform both military and high-risk civilian missions with maximum safety, reducing direct exposure to dangerous environments. We’re currently seeking $580,000 to expand our engineering team and produce our first 5–7 prototypes for testing. With these field-tested prototypes, we aim to redefine operational safety standards and address critical workforce challenges in both sectors,” said Iryna Sukhomlyn, co-founder and CBDO at RMachine. 

MUST READS:

1. HUR (Ukrainian intelligence) analyzed components from a downed Russian drone S-70 ‘Ohotnik,’ and found that it has many components from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. 

2. The Ukrainian MoD received its first patent for tech related to the detection of Russian FPV drones. ‘Vitryak M’ was developed by Ukrainian military engineers from the Center for Scaling Technology Solutions.

3. Ukraine has domestically produced more than 100 missiles in 2024, said Zelenskyy.

4. Lithuanian startup Broswarm has secured €800k in funding from ScaleWolf. Broswarm specializes in mine detection technology, particularly in Ukraine.

5. Ukrainian MoD signed a contract with ICEYE, which produces synthetic aperture radar(SAR) satellites. This deal was made possible thanks to the support of the German government and Rheinmetall, which was a party to the contract.

6. Ukraine will test counter-UAV missiles from Frankenburg Technologies. Frankenburg’s missiles can shoot down drones flying up to 2 km above the earth.

7. The Ukrainian armored vehicle UAT-TISA has been authorized and codified by MoD for usage in the army.

8. Ukrainian company 3DTech has developed a new FPV drone with fiber optic cable, the Khyzak REBOFF, with 5 or 10 km range.

Thanks to our media partner: