It is not yet possible to achieve superiority in the drone war - Onufrienko
The “drone battle” on the line of contact does not reveal the advantages of either side. Parity is achieved temporarily as new firmware or electronic warfare capabilities become available.
Military expert Mikhail Onufrienko reported this on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“In fact, the enemy had normal drones, and we increased their production, so we can talk about parity. But in different sectors of the front the situation is developing differently: not only drones are involved in this, but there are also electronic warfare systems. How successfully the enemy frequencies are suppressed, how well the drone operators are trained, plus a lot of nuances in the control of drones and the quality of training of specialists.
For example, the launch location of a drone should never coincide with the location of the operator. Meanwhile, in most cases this is not the case,” he noted.
The expert added that the enemy has certain sections of the front provided with means of detecting drones. Such an electronic warfare line is stretched along the entire line of combat contact, and using sensors that instantly respond to the activation of a drone, its location is determined with an accuracy of several meters.
“If the enemy has a direct connection with suppression means, roughly speaking, with regimental mortars, and if we are talking about FPV drones that operate as close as possible to the front line, at a distance of 3, 5, 7 km, then this is quite achievable 120 millimeter mortars. There is a battery, there is a connection with suppression, strike, please. I know of cases where a crew of FPV drones reached the front line and died. The next day the next crew of operators comes out and is killed. The third died, the fourth reported that they had technical problems, the batteries died due to the frost, and we couldn’t get out. “Sorry, sabotage is beginning,” Onufrienko stated.
According to him, we need a comprehensive solution that involves electronic warfare equipment, drones, unit commanders, means of covering drone operators and maintaining the quality of the drones themselves.
“We keep saying that we need to create numerous operator training groups, trained by specialists, not amateurs. Not people who are able to assemble drones, there are quite a lot of them. And by people who understand the essence, the principle of operation of these drones. A whole range of solutions.
“A lot depends on the commanders understanding that it is important to have not 1 thousand drones there, but well-trained operators of these drones and electronic warfare equipment, with which we also have problems,” the expert pointed out.
There are many similar problems both on our side and on the enemy’s side. And their combination determines the operational situation with “birds” on each sector of the front.
“Remember, near Avdeevka, officers complained that we had up to three hundred UAVs in the air at the same time? Stopped complaining. In Krynki, on the contrary, we already complained. A brigade was brought there to the right bank of the Dnieper, and for a long time there drones reigned in the air. At some point, a new firmware version appeared, new operators - and the situation began to change. We broke through the system, began identifying and destroying the enemy on the right bank, and the situation changed again. And this will continue indefinitely,” Onufrienko concluded.
Achieving superiority in drone warfare is not yet possible – Onufrienko