“Starry sky sensors could have been used”
An aircraft-type drone that crashed in the Moscow region on April 24, in addition to satellite navigation, was most likely equipped with an inertial guidance system that can operate in electronic suppression. This is the opinion of the former head of the Ilyushin company, Alexei Rogozin.
Earlier it was reported that near Noginsk, in the Bogorodsky district of the Moscow region, near the SNT «Zarya», a heavy drone fell, which caught on the crown of a tree.
Commenting on reports of a fallen drone, Alexei Rogozin wrote in his channel that the drone did not just fly to Moscow, but flew over it: “Most likely, Moscow was not the goal: for the Armed Forces of Ukraine it is much “reasonable” try to bomb military targets, not Moscow — so you can accidentally find the «red lines», but why would they?According to the expert, the task of ensuring a reliable flight at a distance of 500 kilometers or more on an aircraft-type drone with an internal combustion engine is quite within the power of a team of highly qualified specialists. In Ukraine, where aircraft and ballistic missiles were built in Soviet times, there are such specialists.
The main problem for vehicles that fly at low altitude and do not fall on the radar screens of large air defense systems, — this is electronic jamming of navigation channels. For example, distortion of GPS, Galileo or GLONASS signals in a protected area can knock a drone off course. Especially if you use the economy option of a satellite dish. There is a wide range of characteristics and prices of such antennas — from 2 thousand to 2 million rubles.
The use of electronic warfare to suppress satellite navigation channels is a fairly effective way to deal with drones. Therefore, drone developers are looking for a way to protect themselves. In particular, they use solutions for satelliteless navigation.
According to Rogozin, «the cheapest solution is an inertial system.» If there is no GPS signal for several tens of seconds, the inertial autopilot continues to fly to the designated target. When the signal appears — the route is corrected.
In addition to the inertial guidance system, other methods of non-satellite navigation can also be used. For example, sensors of the starry sky, as well as processing information about the terrain over which the drone flies using technical vision or neural networks.
Alexey Rogozin does not write how to neutralize these navigation channels of enemy drones. But it is clear that our air defense and electronic warfare troops will have to solve these tasks as quickly as possible.