Russian drone terror has gripped Ukraine – dozens of cities have suffered severe damage: residential buildings have been torn up, office buildings reduced to rubble and power plants destroyed.
The leading role in this perfidious tactic are the Iranian kamikaze drones Shahed 136. While many of these drones can be shot down by air defense systems, the flying assassins often come in swarms. Because not everyone is affected, they still pose a major threat to Ukraine.
The Shahed Catcher drone defense system aims to provide a way out of this misery. According to the Defensepost portal, the system is relatively cheap and the budget was obtained through crowdfunding from Ukraine. Bracelets were sold made of steel from the Azov factory in southern Ukraine, which Ukrainian soldiers fiercely but unsuccessfully defended against the Russian attack in the spring.
The goal was to raise the equivalent of 2.25 million euros for two of these systems. But according to the Ukrainian Minister of Digital Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mychailo Fedorov (31), the amount was twice as high.
“Shahed Catcher” blinds targets
According to Defensepost, the Ukrainian leadership has not yet published further details about the exact functioning of these defense systems. However, according to Forbes Ukraine, it is a NATO system designed to dazzle its targets.
The Ukrainian news site Euromaidan Press explains how this works: By blinding the enemy kamikaze drones, they try to gain altitude, where they can then be more easily shot down by air defense systems. So the Shahed Catcher would be very similar to the Sky Wiper jammer cannon already in use. However, this rifle disrupts the drones with electromagnetic pulses.
The Ukrainian air defense will also get the German Iris T air defense system and France the Crotale defense system, both multifunctional systems that can also fight drones. The Vampire system, which comes from the US and can also be mounted on civilian vehicles, is specially tuned for this threat.
Also supplied by the US is the Titan anti-drone system, which uses artificial intelligence to identify the drones that need to be shut down. However, both Vampire and Titan are still largely untried.
Defense against drones is a matter for the population
In Ukraine, defending against drones is not just a matter for the military or the government, as the German magazine Focus writes.
In addition, Ukraine has launched an app. It allows citizens to participate in the hunt for kamikaze drones via smartphone. If you see a drone or cruise missile in the sky, point your cell phone at it and press a button in the app.
The coordinates are then sent directly to the Ukrainian air defense, where they are compared with their own radar information. Once all data has been compared and matched, the object is released for launch.