Remote-controlled Russian drones can reach Kyiv Oblast, expert warns
Shahed UAV over Kyiv, April 16 (Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko)
Using relay stations in Belarus,
Russian pilots can control Shahed kamikaze drones flying as deep south as Kyiv
Oblast, Serzh Marko, a drone specialist with Ukraine’s 59th Assault
Brigade, told NV Radio on April 21.
“Kyiv is relatively close to the Russian border, and from the Belarus side they can set up relay stations,” Marko said.
“The modules on Shaheds that can create a mesh network can maintain communications at distances of 150 to 170 kilometers in good conditions. So controlling Shaheds and via a dynamic mesh network in Kyiv Oblast is absolutely technically feasible.”
Marko said Ukrainian electronic-warfare systems detect the towers used to control the drones, after which those stations are targeted and destroyed, usually by another drone. But he warned that destroying a relay node does not prevent another from being placed nearby later.
“Intelligence identifies the location of this modem and it is destroyed, typically by a loitering munition or a drone,” he said.
“But that doesn’t guarantee that, at the next attack a week
later, a control module won’t appear on a neighboring tower somewhere and start
transmitting again. We might only be able to find and destroy that tower after
they have already flown, reached their target, and done their work.”
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