Activist and volunteer Serhiy Sternenko believes that Ukraine is «a long way behind the Russians» in the fiber-optic drone niche. He also listed existing and future ways to counter drones that are invulnerable to electronic warfare.
Activist and volunteer Serhiy Sternenko believes that Ukraine is «a long way behind the Russians» in the fiber-optic drone niche. He also listed existing and future ways to counter drones that are invulnerable to electronic warfare.
Sternenko spoke about this in an interview with the YouTube channel «Toronto Television». According to him, the problem is not the small number of Ukrainian drones on fiber optics, but that the drones contracted by the state are not very suitable for combat operations.
«In general, we have a big problem with manufacturers. This applies not only to fiber-optic drones. We have some, not all, but there are such manufacturers, if they took a state contract, they don’t care how effective their product is. They don’t care anymore. That soldier can contact them 10 times and say: 'Modernize it, remake it.' They don’t care. The state buys from them anyway», — said Serhiy Sternenko.
He added that not all Ukrainian manufacturers of fiber-optic drones have a similar attitude, and there are «cool manufacturers».
«But many of them made a rash decision to just let the drone fly and uncoil the fiber optic. And it doesn’t meet the stated specifications. For example, there may be a coil for 20 km, and the drone flies 11. Or it can’t lift the normal required warhead. There are different nuances», — the volunteer noted.
In his opinion, state bodies that carry out state purchases of drones for the military should establish a working system for receiving objective feedback from units and «put manufacturers in a framework». He believes that compliance with military requirements should be spelled out in a standard contract. Instead, the state can guarantee manufacturers that it will buy back all of its drones manufactured during a certain period, and thus stimulate it.
«We get exactly what the combat unit needs, and the manufacturer gets working capital that allows us to scale production, hire workers, install additional equipment, etc. This is how it should work. That is, the state should defend the interests of the soldier as an end-user of the products it buys. And not just — the president said: „We need drones on fiber optics,“ and we bought drones on fiber optics. And what are they? And what kind of drones are there», — says Sternenko.
According to the volunteer, currently, fiber-optic drones can only be countered by passive means: road nets, shelters, or physical destruction. Electronic warfare means are ineffective against them, because they lack a radio signal that could be silenced.
«I think that in the future, mini-turrets with machine vision will be used against such air targets, which will detect and shoot them down. Either laser installations or microwave guns, which will be installed as modules, perhaps on new armored vehicles», — predicts Serhiy Sternenko.
In his opinion, despite the development of drones as a means of destruction, tanks will continue to be used on the battlefield. However, in the future, they will also become unmanned.
