Russian UAVs begin to maneuver away from threats

29 October, 2024 Russian ZALA 421 reconnaissance drone. Photo: ZALA Aero Group Russian reconnaissance drones began performing maneuvers to avoid strikes by Ukrainian interceptor drones.

Serhii Sternenko released the video of the hunt for the Russian UAV. Drone warfare in the Ukrainian skies continues to evolve and has taken on a new dimension with the emergence of evasive algorithms on some Russian aircraft. One of these was recently detected by the Lastivka unit operators of the 11th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine.

As the FPV interceptor approached the Russian ZALA 421 drone, it suddenly started to fall to one side, performing an evasive maneuver with changes in course and altitude. The principle of operation of such UAVs has not yet been studied. An unconfirmed version is that the new drones are equipped with a rear-view video camera that notifies the system of a threat and automatically initiates a pre-programmed maneuvering algorithm.

The theory of automated algorithms is supported by the Russian drone repeating the same maneuvers as the interceptor approached. However, no camera-like objects were seen on the target itself. It can be assumed that evasive measures can be activated when radio signal emission sources approach, the sensors of which have already been detected on Zala drones.

This month, Militarnyi reported on Russian UAV operators' field experiments with retrofitting drones with radio jammers to protect them from Ukrainian FPV interceptor drones. In particular, they included radio signal analyzers that detected the approach of radiation sources - FPV drones that constantly broadcast video signals. Upon approaching, the module briefly activated a radio interference generator, which theoretically should have prevented the UAV from being targeted.