Some soldiers in Ukraine get so confused by all the drones in the sky that they panic and jam everything, a drone operator shared with Business Insider.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, told BI that telling drones apart is “a big problem” as there are so many drones, and many are “technologically very, very similar.”
“Imagine yourself being an infantry guy,” he said, explaining that “you are seeing an FPV drone flying at you, and you literally have no idea whether that is a Russian one that just came from behind or a Ukrainian.”
“So there are a lot of cases happening when Ukrainian guys, the infantry, in their position, they have an EW system and they literally click all of the frequencies to be jammed because they’re scared.”
A confusing high-tech war
The Ukraine war is a high-tech fight involving a range of robotic technologies, but how that fight plays out “depends on human beings.”
“There will always be an issue just because not everyone is an expert in technology, and it’s hard,” Zhluktenko said. “Let’s say you have a guy who never had a smartphone sitting in the infantry in the trench, right? And he’s supposed to understand that there is a friend or foe FPV drone flying at him and he has to put this specific frequency on the jammer. It’s a mess.”
So, instead of jamming a specific frequency, he just jams everything, hindering not just enemy drones but friendly ones as well. There have been reports of Ukrainian forces accidentally jamming their own drones.
Drones, especially small uncrewed aerial systems like the FPV quadcopter platforms, have been used more in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than in any other conflict in history, and an electronic warfare battle has emerged to defeat them.
Russia and Ukraine both try to jam each other’s drones to break the connection between the operator and the drone.
Although some drones like fiber-optic systems or AI-driven platforms are largely immune to enemy jamming, most drones are connected to the operaters by radio frequencies that can be flooded with noise. As electronic warfare countermeasures have become more prolific, so have efforts to stop jamming efforts.
A cluttered battlespace
BI has seen combat footage from the war, and the confusion about drones is real, especially when there are dozens flying overhead. “Whose drone is that?” and “Is that one of ours?” are questions that have been shouted many times over the sounds of gunfire.
A US veteran fighting for Ukraine told BI last year that he could not tell which side a drone above him belonged to until it dropped a grenade. Then he had to start running.
Another Ukrainian drone operator, who spoke to BI on the condition of anonymity, said amid the confusion, infantry sometimes attempts to shoot down every drone they see.
Zhluktenko said some Russian drones can be easy to identify. Russia makes far fewer drone types than Ukraine, and he said that makes it easier for Ukraine to learn to identify those drones and how to defeat them.
But sometimes, when they’re rapidly buzzing by overhead amid distractions like other enemy activity, it can be harder to sort out which one belongs to which side.
Zhluktenko said that with most drones, “they all sound the same, and they all look the same, really. And they have the same radio frequency signature and anything.”
Both Ukraine and Russia use some of the same types of drones, like the Mavic drones from Chinese company DJI. And the radio frequencies get so crowded that operators sometimes unintentionally see other operators’ drone feeds.
Operators try to avoid situations like mass jamming because that doesn’t help, especially given the importance of still being able to fly their side’s drones. Zhluktenko said that drone operators try to coordinate with other soldiers to tell them when they are going to fly along the front line or through areas where the Ukrainian soldiers are.
He said that they send activity notifcations using messaging apps like Signal, explaining “we have a group chat of coordinating small aviation in that specific sector.”
A technological arms race
Russia and Ukraine are engaged in an arms race, striving for supremacy in drone technology and electronic warfare countermeasures.
Drones have been used to monitor and locate enemy troops and equipment, launch attacks on soldiers and weaponry, and destroy equipment worth millions of dollars at a fraction of the cost.
Ukraine’s defense minister said in February that his country was winning the race and had become the world’s largest producer of tactical and strategic drones.
Russia is working to increase its domestic production as well.
Ukraine is now making most of its own drones, and its defense industry is booming. That self-sustainability is key as the US under President Donald Trump has become less reliable.
Zhluktenko said he will keep fighting Russia, regardless of US support levels.
“I do not think that some people in the United States are able to affect whether I want to fight for my home or my family,” he said. “At the same time, it’s kind of sad that because I know a lot of great Americans, I’m proud to call them friends.”
He said that he saw the brutal ways Ukrainians living in parts of the country occupied by Russia have been treated. “So I know that I just don’t want this to happen to my home next.”
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