Author: Lan Shunzheng
First published from: The Paper
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis has turned into a large-scale military conflict, and fighting between the two sides is still continuing.
The military strength of Russia and Ukraine is very different, and the situation on the first day of the war also reflects this. Then in the face of the strong Russian army, how the Ukrainian army fights has also become the focus of external attention. Recently, the Japanese media published an article analyzing whether the Ukrainian government forces, which are in a weak position in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, can use the power of drones to change the war situation. According to the latest news, the Turkish TB-2 "Flag Bearer" unmanned aerial vehicle equipped by the Ukrainian army attacked the Russian army and destroyed some armored vehicles, while the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Konashenkov said that the Russian army shot down 4 Ukrainian TB-2 "flag bearer" drones. As the fighting progresses, the battle between the two sides around drones may also become more intense.
The Ukrainian army displayed the Turkish TB-2 "Flag Bearer" unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with the outside world.
Regional conflict: Drones shine
The Japanese media in the article for the TB-2 UAV can be described as highly respected, saying that the UAV will give the Russian military a headache, the UAV may become a trump weapon to change the east display. TB-2 UAV is a medium-sized Tsatta integrated UAV developed by The Turkish Company of Kalek-Baka, with a length of 6.5 meters, a wingspan of 12 meters, a range of more than 150 kilometers, a maximum flight altitude of 7620 meters, a maximum flight speed of 130 km / h, an endurance of more than 20 hours, and a load capacity of 155 kg. The TB-2 drone not only takes off and lands completely autonomously, but also has navigation capabilities based on a multi-sensor fusion architecture. In order to facilitate the clear target in real time, the TB-2 UAV is equipped with the MX-15D photoelectric turret produced by WESCAM, which is equipped with a variety of high-performance airborne observation equipment and can collect battlefield images around the clock. In addition, the TB-2 UAV can carry a long-range anti-tank missile system consisting of THE MAM-L micro-intelligent missile and the MAM-C micro-intelligent missile. The system is laser-guided and has a high strike accuracy, with a missile range of 8 kilometers, and the MAM-L missile can reach a range of up to 14 kilometers with an inertial navigation system. The UAV has been put into practice in many conflicts, and in November 2018, the Ukrainian side also began to purchase TB-2 UAVs and their supporting ammunition.
Turkey delivers TB-2 "Flag bearer" drones to Ukraine.
The reason why the Japanese side believes that such UAVs as TB-2 can cause Russia a headache in this conflict is that in recent years, UAVs have shined in local conflicts, especially in the confrontation with Russian-made equipment. In the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani drones destroyed a large number of Armenian Russian-made weapons. For example, on September 28 of that year, Azerbaijan dispatched a number of TB-2 drones to destroy an Armenian SAM-8/9k33OSA surface-to-air missile system; on September 30, Azerbaijan launched a number of "Harrop" cruise missiles to destroy the radar of Armenia's S-300 air defense system; on October 1, Azerbaijan successfully destroyed the Armenian Russian "insect repellent-1" anti-UAV electronic warfare system using the "Harrop" cruise missile, which is also the world's first UAV destruction of the anti-UAV jamming system. Statistics show that in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan used the "Tsatchath integrated" unmanned aerial vehicles, patrol missiles and suicide drones to carry out full-coverage attacks on Armenian ground tanks and air defense systems, although the Arab side also lost many low-cost drones, but combined with the results of the battle, the drones played a key role in the advancement of the war situation. Japanese media said that on October 26, 2021, the Ukrainian government army used the TB-2 drone made in Turkey for the first time in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, destroying a 122-mm howitzer of the pro-Russian armed forces, and just a week after ukraine first used the TB-2, Putin ordered the accelerated development of the drone at the Russian military industry conference, which in the Eyes of the Japanese side is obviously that tb-2 makes russia feel "fear".
The TB-2 Flag bearer is a "Schath- and-Strike" UAV with 4 outer mounts that can carry 4 small air-to-ground missiles.
Drones: Not a life-saving straw for the Ukrainian army
However, the author believes that in this round of conflict, it should be difficult for the Ukrainian side to stage a "myth" in the low-cost "detection and combat integration" drone, because this "Russia" is not the other "Russia". In fact, THE TB-2 UAV has the disadvantages of slow flight speed and low payload, and has had a disastrous experience in the Libyan battlefield. According to an investigation by American war correspondent Jeff Jawowski, 47 TB-2 drones were shot down during the Libyan civil war. The role of Azerbaijani drones in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has a great relationship with the combat environment at that time. On the one hand, the Asian air defense body is mainly composed of P-15, P-18, P-19 and other early warning radars, S-300, "SAM"-8A, "Doyle" and other air defense weapon systems, the overall performance of the equipment is in the second and third generations, with the ability to early warning and monitor the targets of the third generation and the ability to intercept the echelon, but for the lack of low-altitude detection performance, "low, slow and small" targets can use the mountainous terrain of the Nagorno-Karabakh region to penetrate. On the other hand, the deployment of air defense combat equipment on the Asian side is unreasonable, and the application of tactics is not flexible. For example, it relies too much on fixed positions to fight, and lacks camouflage protection. In addition, the deployment of medium- and short-range air defense weapon systems is scattered, lacks coordination, and fights alone. The lack of low-altitude blinding radar to guide low-altitude targets is also a fatal flaw. In contrast, after the Implementation of the "New Look" military reform, the Russian military has effectively improved the modernization level of Russian weapons and equipment by upgrading and transforming active weapons and equipment and developing new equipment. Because Russia has encountered large-scale drone threats many times, it also attaches great importance to anti-drone operations. In terms of electronic warfare defense system, the Russian military ground electronic warfare equipment includes communications, radar electronic warfare equipment and optoelectronic, radio fuze confrontation equipment, the main battle equipment includes P series, SR series, GKV series, and other types of communication reconnaissance, direction finding, jamming equipment, frequency coverage of 1.5 ~ 400 MHz. In 2011, Iran successfully captured the US military RQ-170 Sentinel drone using the Russian autofield electronic warfare system; in 2014, the Russian automotive field electronic warfare system intercepted a US military MQ-5B drone in Crimea, demonstrating the system's powerful anti-drone combat capabilities.
The Ukrainian TB-2 drone that was previously shot down by armed personnel in Eastern Wudong.
In terms of anti-UAV weapons, in addition to the traditional 9K35, "Doyle", "Willow" and other multi-type air defense missiles, Russia also has some new equipment, such as: ultra-high frequency microwave gun, the weapon by the monitoring system, mirror antenna, high-power relativity generator and transmission system, by destroying the UAV radio electronic equipment, so that it can not be located, at the same time can also destroy the UAV precision guidance system, the effective destruction range of the UAV is 10 kilometers, can be launched 360 °. Shoulder-mounted anti-drone device Sky-Wall100, the weapon uses air pressure catapult to launch a mesh trap to capture illegal intrusion of the drone, the missile has a built-in parachute and magnetic device, after capturing the drone can make the drone immediately incapacitated, and use the parachute to make the drone land safely, to achieve injury-free capture; "carnivore" drone, Russia mainly for the Syrian battlefield design of the UAV, can be in the air with the enemy UAV to fight, At the same time, the use of high-resolution reconnaissance payload to recontroll the target area, the UAV has a high-performance electronic countermeasure capability, even if it is subjected to strong electromagnetic interference, it can perform tasks or return autonomously according to the predetermined route. In terms of combat training, the Russian military has now imposed anti-drone training in active duty forces. Russia's Defense Ministry announced in July 2018 that all ground forces, marines and airborne units must learn how to shoot down drones using assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles and automated weapons. In addition, starting from 2019, all major Russian military exercises include training content to defend against large-scale drone attacks by opponents, of which anti-drone electronic warfare systems/technologies are the key content of exercise training. All of this has raised the Russian military's anti-drone combat capability to a new height. According to the US CNN quoted by the United States intelligence officials said that nearly 75% of Russia's conventional troops are mainly deployed in the range that can attack Ukraine, it is estimated that the Russian army around Ukraine plus the armed forces in Uganda may be as many as 190,000 people, and about 35 of Russia's known 50 air defense battalions are deployed against Ukraine, so in the face of the Russian military's advanced and complete air defense system and various corresponding countermeasures, Ukraine wants to rely on a limited number of TB-2 drones to stage a "Jedi counterattack" I'm afraid it's unrealistic.