In modern warfare, drones have become a role that will never be absent, and this has been vividly demonstrated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has lasted for more than two years. On the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine, the protagonists are not those large Chada drones that fly at high altitudes and wait for an opportunity to launch anti-tank missiles. In the face of anti-aircraft fire, the space for large UAVs to play is not particularly large, but those lower, slower and smaller FPV suicide traversers, as well as bomb-dropping drones, can run rampant and constantly hunt soldiers in the trenches.
These toy-sized drones can carry all kinds of ammunition, bundled with shells and mines of small caliber, hovering over the battlefield like a grim reaper, and rushing to explode if they find a target. There are FPV suicide drones with armor-piercing warheads, capable of even wrecking tanks. And anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft guns are almost helpless in the face of such low, slow and small UAVs, not only can they not hit, but even if they do, it is not cost-effective.
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And when ordinary soldiers are targeted by suicide drones, it is even more difficult to get rid of them, and they are often blown up on their backs, which is miserable. On the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, there are often scenes of soldiers begging for mercy or even surrendering to drones. The bomb-throwing drone, which throws grenades vertically downwards from a height, is difficult to be detected by soldiers on the ground, and can constantly drop bombs to disturb them, which makes soldiers annoyed and accidentally landed.
So can these nasty drones be countered, and how should they be countered? The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has given its own answer! CCTV's seven sets of "ploughing and warfare channels" recently broadcast a video showing the confrontation scenes between our army's individual soldiers and various unmanned aerial vehicles. I saw the fighters deftly hiding behind the obstacles, avoiding the sight of the FPV traverser. One of the fighters also jumped into the trench at the last moment with an agile movement, dodging the bombs dropped by the bomb-dropping drone.
Of course, these are just passive ways of dealing with the goal of dodging the damage of the drone. A more proactive approach, of course, is to shoot down these drones. In the CCTV video, a special gun appeared, which should be an electromagnetic countermeasure gun that shot down the drone through electromagnetic interference, which can emit electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency to interfere with the communication between the drone and the rear console, causing it to fall.
But there's still to come: in one shot, a soldier is seen hiding in a trench, and when the drone flies overhead, the fighter pulls out a shotgun-like firearm, aims at the drone and fires a shot. Unexpectedly, what came out of the barrel was not a bullet, but a large net. The unknown drone crashed directly into the big net, the propeller could not rotate, and it was shot down on the spot.
This method of countering UAVs is still relatively new. According to the introduction in the video, the gun that can fire a large net is called a net gun, also known as an anti-riot net gun, a capture net, a net shooter, a net trap, a capture net, etc., which can be divided into compressed air power and gunpowder power according to the power supply method.
This kind of gun was originally used by the public security special police to arrest criminals, when using the net gun aimed at the gangsters, pull the trigger, through the gas or gunpowder power, the huge capture net can be launched, within a certain distance to cover the gangsters, so that they can not run, and the more the net is moved, the tighter the cover. The capture net is woven with high-strength nylon silk, which is lightweight, tough, and not easy to damage, which can firmly cover the gangsters. Due to the relatively large size of the net, the accuracy is quite good when used at close range, and the success rate can reach 98%.
Since the net gun can cover a large living person, it is not a problem to "catch" a small and light drone, but the premise is to predict the advance amount according to the flight speed of the drone, otherwise it is not easy to aim at it because the drone is moving at high speed. The PLA uses "big nets" to capture drones, it should be said that it is not the first time, and the Russian army has also used it.
After more than two years of baptism of war, the Russian army on the Russian-Ukrainian front is now very experienced in dealing with drones. In the video on social media, there is a shot of the Russian army using a drone to launch a large mesh cover and capture the Ukrainian drone on the spot.
I saw that the Russian drone was larger, and it cautiously flew above the enemy drone, and then launched a net with a considerable area, and the covered Ukrainian drone was immediately captured by the net, unable to move, and hung under the Russian drone, which is equivalent to being "captured".
In another first-person video, a drone spotted another drone below, and after choosing a location, the drone also dropped a large net, and the drone below was covered by the net and fell on the spot.
These drones are all four- or six-rotary-wing drones with less power and slower flight speeds. As soon as the rotor is covered or entangled in the net, it immediately loses power. Therefore, in the face of the net gun, there is almost no power to fight back. In addition to using nets, drones between Russia and Ukraine often directly "air combat", that is, using their own drones to hit the enemy's drones and knock them down directly.
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In this regard, the drone pilots of the Russian army are more courageous, relying on their own drones are more robust or cheaper, and they often fly directly to collide with Ukrainian drones, and they can often achieve results. There are also UAVs that have undergone special modifications, such as some structural reinforcements, to make them "fighters" that hunt other UAVs, and perform very well in "air combat".
Of course, the Ukrainian army is not far behind in the confrontation of drones, and foreign media have published a video of the air combat of the Ukrainian drone, showing that the drone caught up with a flying Russian unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and crashed it. At this time, the drone is like an anti-aircraft missile, but it is more intelligent and intuitive than the missile.
CCTV's video shows the skills and tactics of our soldiers against UAVs, which is very exciting. But after all, we are in an era of peace, and we do not have much experience in real combat. And the Russian army has been fighting on the battlefield of drones everywhere for more than two years, and it has quite rich experience in actual combat. Therefore, we might as well learn some good lessons from the Russian army, integrate them, and then rely on the mainland's advantages in drone technology to explore a set of more advanced drone confrontation tactics, which will be very beneficial to reduce the casualties caused by drones.