The Radio-Obsessed Civilian Shaping Ukraine's Drone Defense (technologyreview.com) 42
Former Ukranian officer Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov created a Signal channel where military communications specialists could talk with civilian radio experts, reports MIT's Technology Review. But radio communications are crucial for drones, so...
About once a month, he drives hundreds of kilometers east in a homemade mobile intelligence center: a black VW van in which stacks of radio hardware connect to an array of antennas on the roof that stand like porcupine quills when in use. Two small devices on the dash monitor for nearby drones. Over several days at a time, Flash studies the skies for Russian radio transmissions and tries to learn about the problems facing troops in the fields and in the trenches.
He is, at least in an unofficial capacity, a spy. But unlike other spies, Flash does not keep his work secret. In fact, he shares the results of these missions with more than 127,000 followers — including many soldiers and government officials — on several public social media channels. Earlier this year, for instance, he described how he had recorded five different Russian reconnaissance drones in a single night — one of which was flying directly above his van... Drones have come to define the brutal conflict that has now dragged on for more than two and a half years. And most rely on radio communications — a technology that Flash has obsessed over since childhood. So while Flash is now a civilian, the former officer has still taken it upon himself to inform his country's defense in all matters related to radio...
Flash has also become a source of some controversy among the upper echelons of Ukraine's military, he tells me. The Armed Forces of Ukraine declined multiple requests for comment, but Flash and his colleagues claim that some high-ranking officials perceive him as a security threat, worrying that he shares too much information and doesn't do enough to secure sensitive intel... [But] His work has become greatly important to those fighting on the ground, and he recently received formal recognition from the military for his contributions to the fight, with two medals of commendation — one from the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, the other from the Ministry of Defense...
And given the mounting evidence that both militaries and militant groups in other parts of the world are now adopting drone tactics developed in Ukraine, it's not only his country's fate that Flash may help to determine — but also the ways that armies wage war for years to come.
He's also written guides on building cheap anti-drone equipment...
He is, at least in an unofficial capacity, a spy. But unlike other spies, Flash does not keep his work secret. In fact, he shares the results of these missions with more than 127,000 followers — including many soldiers and government officials — on several public social media channels. Earlier this year, for instance, he described how he had recorded five different Russian reconnaissance drones in a single night — one of which was flying directly above his van... Drones have come to define the brutal conflict that has now dragged on for more than two and a half years. And most rely on radio communications — a technology that Flash has obsessed over since childhood. So while Flash is now a civilian, the former officer has still taken it upon himself to inform his country's defense in all matters related to radio...
Flash has also become a source of some controversy among the upper echelons of Ukraine's military, he tells me. The Armed Forces of Ukraine declined multiple requests for comment, but Flash and his colleagues claim that some high-ranking officials perceive him as a security threat, worrying that he shares too much information and doesn't do enough to secure sensitive intel... [But] His work has become greatly important to those fighting on the ground, and he recently received formal recognition from the military for his contributions to the fight, with two medals of commendation — one from the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, the other from the Ministry of Defense...
And given the mounting evidence that both militaries and militant groups in other parts of the world are now adopting drone tactics developed in Ukraine, it's not only his country's fate that Flash may help to determine — but also the ways that armies wage war for years to come.
He's also written guides on building cheap anti-drone equipment...
Vehicle type and colour (Score:5, Insightful)
Or that's not enough to actually find them. (Score:2)
Like there are tons of them around.
And/or they try to only go out at night when moving around. Then camouflage it more when stationary.
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That's actually misdirection. He travels in an Aurus Senat [wikipedia.org]. ;-)
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Indeed, Russian troops have no qualms about wasting civilians minding their own business, so I'm sure they'd treat a civilian doing DIY sigint the same as a military enemy. Even driving a van that could be mistaken for something other than an ordinary civilian van where Russian drones can see it is an exceptionally ballsy move.
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They were captured once and close in a barn with a tractor, some iron plates, a box of dunamite and an arc welding machine. They ecaped easily somehow.
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He's apparently shared pictures of the thing on Telegram, so I don't think he's terribly worried. As long as he stays far enough back from the front that Russian troops don't think he's ferrying weapons or reinforcements they'll generally leave him alone. Unlike the US/Western Europe method of war, where civilians are the primary target, Eastern Europeans leave the civilians alone as much as possible and evacuate them when it's not possible. There are plenty of stories of troops (of both sides) who were
guides? (Score:3)
He's also written guides on building cheap anti-drone equipment...
Links please. C'mon this is Slashdot! Gimme!
I made a cursory search (failed). (Score:2)
Did find a blog post by them about using fiber optics to get around radio problems which matched the futuristic solution I'd almost had in mind (mine was more about aimed lasers using hidden frequencies not normally visible to people, or hidden by sunlight). The hosting site looked to be about portable radar equipment or something? With the rest of the page 1 results looking pretty close to this OP topic.
Didn't try super hard, but I'm curious too. Wonder if it's being deliberately hidden so more people d
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The Russians have a jamming-proof drone which spools out a fiber optic cable that can be over five kilometers long. Is that what you're referring to?
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Re:Insurgent (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, such civilized behavior. Torturing [bbc.com], raping [cnn.com], and murdering [aljazeera.com] their way through town [wikipedia.org] after town [wikipedia.org].
Re:Trump for Ukraine and the free world (Score:5, Insightful)
The convicted felon has told Ukraine to surrender, something he would do in their situation. The babbling idiot [imgur.com] has also said he will not help defend our NATO allies if Russia attacks them. Still further, he has said he'd stop the war in one day if he gets into office. So why didn't he do anything other than hand over classified documents [npr.org] to Russia when he was in office as well as give out information which helped kill numerous spies [imgur.com] we had in place.
Take your bullshi elsewhere.
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Citation, please. Direct speech, unedited.
Citation, please. Direct speech, unedited.
He did a lot, and I enumerate (some of) those deeds with better references than Imgur.
You're as full of shit, as Joe Biden's pants.
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Ignore this guy, everyone. He is extremely stupid.
Re:Trump for Ukraine and the free world (Score:5, Interesting)
No, I'd like me some Trump-2.0 instead of Obama-4.0, thank you very much â" both for the free world in general and Ukraine in particular.
I remember what Trump did in Afghanistan. He made a unilateral deal with the enemy without involvement of either Afghanistan itself or our partners who had been in the fight alongside us for decades. He released thousands of enemy fighters and promised to lift sanctions because simply packing up our shit and leaving without actively fucking over the Afghani's in the process simply wasn't good enough.
Anyone who believes Trump will do anything other than abandon Ukraine is living in denial. Not only will he bail he has publicly expressed his desire to lift sanctions on Russia. Like in Afghanistan it won't just be the US walking away he will actively fuck Ukraine working to let "western" tech flow unhindered into the Russian war machine while pressuring our allies to follow suit.
During the presidential debate Trump kept name dropping Orban who Trump has personally met with several times as a private citizen about "peace". Peace means pissing on the UN charter and cheer-leading on the sidelines as a declining oil cursed 2nd tier dictatorship pursues the conquest of an other state. If you all were growing tired of endless wars just wait until you get a load of the world once it fully defaults back to right of conquest.
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The enemy — Taliban — was "the Afghanistan" itself. The nominal "government" was propped up by our presence only.
Now, what Obama did in Afghanistan, was to leave them more weaponry [cnn.com], than Ukraine gets from us in a year...
It is too bad, this thread will become read-only by the time Trump gets into office, is not it?
I provided a long list of facts — with references to the Left med
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The enemy â" Taliban â" was "the Afghanistan" itself.
You are correct, the enemy I mentioned was indeed the Taliban who seized control of the government in 1996 before being kicked out of power after 9/11 in 2001.
The nominal "government" was propped up by our presence only.
The government was "propped up" by an international coalition of many countries not merely the US. Is there a point? What is the relevance of your statements? Are you denying Trump made a unilateral deal with the enemy without our allies in Afghanistan or our coalition partners? Do you deny he released thousands of enemy fighters and promised to l
Hide the dude and STFU (Score:2)
...otherwise Putie will wipe him out.
jammers (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems like anything that emits the jamming radiation would be very vulnerable. Even just a couple of drones carrying directional antennas should be able to triangulate the position of the emitting station within a few hundred feet from miles away. Then something could go have a closer look and maybe kill it. There could be some powerful transmitters way back behind the lines but that would blanket a huge area, and how do you protect your own drones and comms against that interference?
A guy driving around in a van looking at the spectrum with software-defined radios will observe a lot I expect, but surely this a ripe field for ongoing AI enhancement of both offense and defense? Eventually the radio spectrum could look like just a hash of noise, and only the AI could pick out the real data.
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GPS signals from the satellites are very weak, so it is probably relatively easy to jam or spoof them. But surely it would be fairly easy to detect terrestrial emitters at those frequencies and locate the sources. I see reports of jamming or spoofing even for planes flying in the EU.
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The Russians have a drone which uses fiber optic cable for control to do exactly that. Apparently they introduced it in Kursk, but it's probably in more widespread usage now.
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>> a drone which uses fiber optic cable
I saw reports of that too, but it seems impractical. The cable would be trailed out and fall to the ground. Unless it were a pretty robust cable, which means a big heavy spool that a drone couldn't carry far, it would be fragile.
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I haven't seen more than summaries, from the photo it doesn't seem that large a spool on the back of the drone so the fiber must be very thin, which if it's discarded after a single use makes sense. The claimed range is five kilometers, which is enough for front-line use.
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>> so the fiber must be very thin
Right, but it will most likely be laying across some trees. On a windy day the movement of branches could break a fragile cable.
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And you think that the US isn't run by a criminal group? If so then you haven't been paying attention for the last half a century.