Producing a Drone Interceptor From russian Orlan-10, ZALA, SuperCam: Difficulties and Prospects
Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Electronic Transformation of Ukraine, declared that a levels of competition has been introduced on the Courageous 1 system to create a drone interceptor against reconnaissance drones of the russian military, this sort of as Orlan-10, ZALA, or SuperCam.
It is pointed out that the vital needs for improvement are the skill to intercept aerial targets flying at speeds of up to 150 km/h and at altitudes of up to 1500 meters.
At the identical time, the option should really demonstrate how the detection and details transmission system will get the job done from it to the drone interceptor, how the start of the drone interceptor alone will come about, and the destruction of enemy UAVs.
This problems a ask for for the creation of a adequately powerful drone interceptor that could perform as an analog of an anti-plane missile, namely, as a kamikaze drone for air defense.
With the adjustment that this counterpart should be appreciably additional mass-generated and obtainable than any missile for shorter-range air defense devices, especially looking at that the lack of missiles for shorter-vary air defense units like Strela-10 and Osa-AKM is acute. For instance, the Vampire programs outfitted with APKWS in the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not widely deployed.
The activity of making a drone interceptor is quite extraordinary. And this is shown, for illustration, by the point that there is publicly available information about just two identical initiatives, only a single of which has attained the serial stage.
The challenge that has arrived at serial implementation is the American Coyote 2C drone interceptor, priced at $125,000 for every unit. In February 2024, the US Military placed an get for 600 such interceptors, with the prospect of rising the get portfolio to numerous thousand units.
The following aspects are known about this enhancement:
- Coyote 2C has a jet engine.
- It flies at subsonic speeds.
- It can engage targets at distances of up to 15 kilometers.
- It is built particularly for intercepting UAVs.
At the exact time, it is intriguing that to deploy this Coyote 2C, an primarily “improvised SAM procedure” identified as FS-LIDS had to be made, which contains the FAAD C2 command program, the multifunctional KuMRFS radar, an electro-optical station for detecting UAVs, and the container launchers on their own.
This kind of a procedure was sold for export only to Qatar, and the whole worth of the sale amounted to a staggering 1 billion dollars.
Maybe the examples delivered earlier mentioned will encourage Ukrainian developers in the unmanned technology section to create a project that will make it possible for for correctly capturing down russian reconnaissance UAVs devoid of applying scarce missiles for air protection programs.