Ukrainian troops appear to be testing a new drone attachment that uses a cord or line to disable enemy propeller drones in the sky.
The tactic can be seen in a video posted on Monday by the 46th Separate Air Mobile Brigade, which published a video montage of its recent attacks against Russian infantry, vehicles, and drones.
In a caption, the brigade highlighted a “new way of capture of enemy drones in the air.”
As seen from the first-person-view camera of the Ukrainian drone, the new contraption features a rod protruding from the interceptor’s chassis.
Thin rope or cord dangles from the rod, pulled taut by a small weight that sways into view as the Ukrainian drone flies high above the battlefield.
The brigade’s drone then appears to fly over its target — a small quadcopter — entangling the opposing device’s propellers with the attached line.
The brigade published footage of two such interceptions, as well as a third clip of a drone with the rod-like attachment attempting to crash into a fixed-wing drone.
The third target was likely a Russian Molniya one-way attack loitering munition. It’s unclear if the interception in the third clip was successful.
The novel, fishing rod-style device is another example of how the war is pushing militaries to develop new methods of physically disrupting drones as electronic warfare technology adapts.
Ukrainians and Russians have been experimenting with similar counterdrone tactics as a response to anti-jamming features on small attack drones, deploying fishing nets both on the ground and testing them on interceptors.
Some Western companies have also begun trialing drone-mounted and handheld net launchers as a defense against small quadcopters.
As Russia increasingly relies on large-scale attacks with fixed-wing Geran drones that typically fly at speeds of up to 115 mph, and in some cases even 230 mph, the war has led to the growing popularity of small, fast, and inexpensive drones acting as interceptors.
The 46th Separate Air Mobile Brigade’s fishing line apparatus, however, appears to be more suited to disabling quadcopters.
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