ANALYSIS – In the never-ending drone, counter-drone war in Ukraine, Russia is developing a new type of loitering (or hibernating) unmanned aerial weapon system.
To avoid ever-present electronic countermeasures, the Russian ‘Joker’ drone can reportedly take long naps before attacking targets.
This new drone can be parked on rooftops close to the battlefield before being activated (woken up) right before it is needed and launched.
According to the Russians, this will reduce the drone’s time to target (TTT) to just a few seconds.
And this will make the detection and suppression of drones that much more difficult. (RELATED: Chinese Drones May Be Spying All Over DC)
Earlier, I wrote about Russia using cheap ‘Lancet-3’ suicide drones to counter Ukraine’s expensive Western-supplied military equipment.
This new Russian drone system would likely complement the Lancet. Popular Mechanics first reported on this sleeper drone on July 24.
As Sascha Brodsky wrote:
“A tool for hibernating FPV drones of the Joker line and its top model, Ultimatum, was developed and implemented at the Central Design Bureau,” Dmitry Kuzyakin, the director general of Russia’s Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told TASS. “A drone with a hibernator can take up a position for an attack and literally go into hibernation for several weeks. On the air, a sleeping drone does not manifest itself and attack.”
The Joker was designed to be placed on tall structures such as building rooftops to wait for the right moment to attack, Kuzyakin said. As the drone is pre-positioned close to the battlefield, the time it takes to hit its target is reduced to just a few seconds. The drone is also less affected by various countermeasures.
“One FPV pilot can place and then wake up and sequentially use up to 15 sleeping drones,” Kuzyakin added.
This capability could prove very useful to Russia if they can be produced in significant numbers – a big ‘if.’
The Kremlin has been buying huge numbers of Shahed-136 loitering munition drones from Iran since it is having difficulty producing its own munitions itself due to Western sanctions. (RELATED: Video: House Leader Alleges Biden Envoy To Iran May Have Committed ‘Treason’)
It has sent swarms of these drones against Ukrainian targets, but increasingly they have been shot down or otherwise defeated electronically by Ukrainian air defenses.
Ukrainian drones have also been defeated electronically by Russia. Brodsky wrote that two Ukrainian drones attacking targets in Moscow were downed:
The drones were “suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. “On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been deploying its highly effective Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, as well as backpack-portable, U.S. ‘Switchblade’ drones to attack Russian targets.
The TB2 propeller driven drones used by Ukraine may soon be joined by a jet version of the drone.
The new Kizilelma will increase the top speed of the existing TB2s from 155 mph to 457 mph (Mach 0.6) and buff up its weapons capacity ten-fold from 342 pounds to 3,307 pounds, enabling it to support an array of air-to-ground and air-to-air missions.
The Kizilelma is powered by a single Ukrainian-designed turbofan engine, allowing an endurance of five hours.
Expect the drone, counter-drone war in Ukraine to only continue producing faster, smarter, more lethal unmanned systems.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Can we Counter??
Attack drones are getting much more sophisticated. The jet-powered Turkish drone is awesome—I wonder how much cheaper it is than a regular cruise missile. I don’t think I’d be comfortable in a tank or artillery weapon on such a battlefield on either side. Real jet engines have become small and cheap enough now to use in RC hobby planes. There are also smart naval mines now which can lurk in the depths and selectively attack marine targets based on the library of unique acoustic signatures. Submarines are nearing obsolescence. The mines can be programmed to attack ALL enemy subs or even a single sub in particular. They are also effective against surface targets.