Military radio technology specialist and military man Sergey Flesh reported on a new way of using the Russian Molniya UAV as a carrier of FPV drones. According to him, the enemy is using mobile networks to control the devices, which creates additional problems.
Military radio technology specialist and military man Sergey Flesh reported on a new way of using the Russian Molniya UAV as a carrier of FPV drones. According to him, the enemy is using mobile networks to control the devices, which creates additional problems.
According to Sergey Flesh on Facebook, the Russians are increasingly launching the Molniya UAV, which transports two LTE-controlled FPVs and separates them near areas with reliable mobile network coverage. After dropping, the crews take control of the quadcopters and guide them to the target at a distance of 5–10 km from the point of detachment.
The essence of the technique is that the Molniya acts as a «delivery» for FPV: instead of the classic 2.4/5.8 GHz radio channel, the drones switch to control via a cellular network, and therefore partially bypass the suppression of typical frequencies on which Ukrainian electronic warfare equipment operates. According to Flash, such episodes are becoming more frequent, which indicates the transformation of the experimental scheme into a recurring tactic.
In the publication, he clarifies that the carrier is not a repeater for FPV drones: «Lightning» only delivers them to a reliable LTE zone, after which they are controlled separately.
«Molniya 'drives' drones to places with stable LTE coverage and drops them 5-10 km from the target. There are more and more cases. I ask everyone to take note,» says Flash.
The transition to a mobile channel of attack complicates anti-drone defense at the tactical level, as traditional jammers tuned to popular FPV control bands may be ineffective against traffic passing through base stations. At the same time, the enemy remains limited by the availability and quality of 4G coverage in the direction of attack, as well as the vulnerability of the carriers themselves on the approach route.
The trend for combined attacks «carrier + small drone» arose as a response to the deployment of dense EW systems along the front line: the enemy is trying to shorten the FPV flight segment in the zone of active obstacles and bring them as close as possible to the target. Ukrainian units counter such combinations by means of fire defeat of carriers, mobile air defense groups of short range and adaptation of counter-drone means taking into account the use of cellular networks.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the enemy is working to increase the accuracy and range of strikes by the Molniya UAVs. Radio technology specialist, military engineer and engineer Serhiy «Flash» Bezkrestnov noted the growth of the enemy’s technological level.
