the lithuanian electromagnetic rifle that ukraine uses to shoot down russian drones

taketonews

10/17/2022 at 12:51

EST


It is a meter-long metal cannon that can be operated by a soldier to disrupt the aircraft’s control signals and bring it down | NATO has promised to send hundreds of drone jammers after Russia extensively used Iran’s Shahed-136 kamikazes to attack civilians.

Some Ukrainian soldiers detect a drone hundreds of meters high that is watching them. They take a kind of polished black aluminum rifle without a barrel opening that, instead of bullets, launches an electromagnetic pulse. They cut the connection of the Russian unmanned aircraft with the command center who watches over them. After the shot, the drone falls to the ground or makes an emergency landing. War loot. Some are set to automatically return to base if connection is lost. There are risks: the most advanced ones can have the attack coordinates preprogrammed, so their attempt to interfere can precipitate the launch of a grenade, for example.

Scenes like this are part of the drone war being waged on Ukrainian soil between Russia and Ukraine. The ‘rifle’ is actually an unmanned aircraft inhibition system. One of the most popular is Lithuanian-made: the Electronic Drone Mitigation System 4, or EDM4S, for its acronym in English.

It is a device of just over five kilos in weight and one meter in length. It can be operated by a single soldier. Pulling the trigger sends an electromagnetic pulse up to five kilometers away, according to the manufacturer, NT Service UAB.

The Ukrainian Army has been using it profusely. The photos of the soldiers in the trench with the EDM4S at hand or posing with the pointing to the sky they populate the social networks of the accounts that follow the war in Ukraine. The Russians are using more and more drones. In Vladimir Putin’s revenge against the civilian population of kyiv after the destruction of the Crimean bridge, the Putin Army has used Iranian-made kamikaze drones Shahed-136, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

Specifically, only on October 10, Russia used 17 Shahed-136, which were launched from Belarus and Crimea, in addition to 87 missiles. Russia is estimated to have at least 400 of these kamikaze drones. The matter is so important that the foreign ministers of the European Union will discuss this matter at a meeting this Monday and they could reach a political agreement on future sanctions related to said activity of buying and selling drones between Iran and Russia, two diplomatic sources have assured Euronews.

NATO has announced this week that they will put all their efforts into strengthening Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defenses. They will deliver, for this, “hundreds & rdquor; of inhibitory equipment against Russian and Iranian-made drones.

Anti-drone rifles have limited effectiveness. ”They are usually used against micro, mini and medium drones that fly slowly, at low distances and have little protection against interference”, he explains to El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group, Christian Villanuevadirector of the Army Magazine.

“In the case of the Shaheed-136 drones, we are talking about devices of about 200 kg and a considerable size, which fly relatively high -up to 4,000m-, which in many cases are out of the reach of anti-drone rifles. In other words, even if it was not impossible to shoot them down with an anti-drone rifle (the manufacturer of the EDM4S says that it has a range of up to 5,000m), it would be difficult & rdquor ;.

One of the advantages is its low cost. “We have just bought to send to Ukraine as soon as possible 110 of the powerful Lithuanian anti-drone guns EDM4S Sky Cleaners & rdquor ;, journalist Andrius Tapinas said last June. “The cost has been 1.5 million euros (about 14,000 euros each rifle). They will be distributed among 35 Ukrainian military units. And we’ll call them “orc killers” [nombre despectivo de los soldados rusos]as Tolkien would like & rdquor ;.

For the better protected and taller military drones, more advanced air defense systems must be used. If mobility on the battlefield is required, a Stinger-type MANPAD portable air defense system can be used, explains Villanueva, or even traditional anti-aircraft artillery, with 25 or 30mm ammunition.

They can also be used medium and long range anti-aircraft missilesalthough its cost is high in relation to that of each Shaheed-136 (about 20,000 dollars), concludes the expert in military affairs.

Spain announced this Thursday that it will provide four HAWK missile launchers to Ukraine to improve its air defenses. France and the Netherlands have also committed to making shipments to reinforce them. It is part of a program announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “Allies are supplying advanced systems, including artillery, air defense and armored vehicles to Ukraine,” the Norwegian said. Germany yesterday announced the shipment to Ukraine of the first of four Iris-T air defense systems, while the remaining three They will arrive in 2023.

EDM4S are not new to the Ukrainian battlefield. Military journalist Andriy Tsaplienko already reported a year ago that the Ukrainian Army began using the EDM4S drone mitigation system, which had been acquired by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to counter the launching of grenades by pro-Russian militiamen. soviet VOG.17 or mines against the Ukrainian trenches of Donbas. But, after the total invasion of the country ordered by Putin, the use of this and similar systems to disable drones are key to the final victory.



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