This is an amazingly useful thread by @DanielR33187703 on a shot down Ukrainian Baba Yaga drone with a precision guided munition.
There is a lot that stands out to a WW2 EW historian.
WW2 Radio Tech in Ukraine🧵
1/
There is a lot that stands out to a WW2 EW historian.
WW2 Radio Tech in Ukraine🧵
1/
https://twitter.com/DanielR33187703/status/1819384981069988291
I've been studying WW2 radio navigation/radio intercept systems for about nine years, on and off.
Adcock antenna showed up a great deal in that period tech in both applications.
We seem to have one below.⬇️
2/
Adcock antenna showed up a great deal in that period tech in both applications.
We seem to have one below.⬇️
2/
Adcock/Watson-Watt Radio Direction Finding array tech has evolved & merged into the Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA). A solid state technology that is used in most GPS receivers.
The thing is, mimicking WW2 tech with modern electronics is both light & cheap.
3/
The thing is, mimicking WW2 tech with modern electronics is both light & cheap.
3/
When you study stuff like this document (left).⬇️
It is both hard to miss when WW2 radio tech show up in this war or the technological tricks being used on drones.
Adcocks can generate directional beams for navigation or sharp nulls for direction finding.
4/
It is both hard to miss when WW2 radio tech show up in this war or the technological tricks being used on drones.
Adcocks can generate directional beams for navigation or sharp nulls for direction finding.
4/
The VHF band goniometer adcock antenna on the Baba Yaga tells us a great deal, including this text from the link:
"The Adcock has better null definition than a loop, and the Adcock includes high angle nulls."
4/
w8ji.com/Goniometer%20a…
"The Adcock has better null definition than a loop, and the Adcock includes high angle nulls."
4/
w8ji.com/Goniometer%20a…
BLUF:
The Adcock antenna meant the Baba Yaga was designed to fly at higher altitudes to avoid not only small arms, but the horizontal main lobe beams of Russian jammers.
It is also capable of following a VHF guidance beam from a high altitude radio relay drone back
5/
The Adcock antenna meant the Baba Yaga was designed to fly at higher altitudes to avoid not only small arms, but the horizontal main lobe beams of Russian jammers.
It is also capable of following a VHF guidance beam from a high altitude radio relay drone back
5/
...to Ukrainian lines to get around GPS jamming.
This underlines that electronic jamming is a 'saving throw" that can be and is regularly defeated by intelligently applied tech (nulls) and kinematic tactics (fly a beam above the jamming main lobe).
6/
This underlines that electronic jamming is a 'saving throw" that can be and is regularly defeated by intelligently applied tech (nulls) and kinematic tactics (fly a beam above the jamming main lobe).
6/
https://x.com/GrandpaRoy2/status/1798050100633366633
If a drone flies high, it will miss a lot without a precision guided munition, which is what you are seeing at right below.
@DanielR33187703 called the seeker optical/laser spot seeking. I don't think so. See the photo at left and note the differences.
I think it's a...
7/
@DanielR33187703 called the seeker optical/laser spot seeking. I don't think so. See the photo at left and note the differences.
I think it's a...
7/
...DSMAC seeker.
Digital scene matching automatic correlation is a mid-1970's tech applied to the T-hawk missile that has since gotten incredibly cheap to the point that a drug cartel could implement in a drone with a competent electrical engineer.
8/
Digital scene matching automatic correlation is a mid-1970's tech applied to the T-hawk missile that has since gotten incredibly cheap to the point that a drug cartel could implement in a drone with a competent electrical engineer.
8/
https://x.com/TrentTelenko/status/1799860721347682527
The off the shelf commercial thermal imager you see below would fit that Baba Yaga PGM for a DSMAC or contrast seeker.
Both a drone dropped DSMAC or simple contrast seeker are radio jamming proof.
9/
Both a drone dropped DSMAC or simple contrast seeker are radio jamming proof.
9/
https://x.com/FPVDronesUa/status/1814672272835174864
So, Ukraine has developed a radio/GPS jamming proof drone, with a radio jamming proof PGM to do battlefield air interdiction in a heavy GPS jamming environment that US field artillery PGM's cannot.
10/
10/
Nov 2023 to August 2024 is enough time for the Jamming proof & PGM equipped Baba Yaga to evolve in reaction to the jamming of the 155mm M982 Excalibur GPS guided shell...
11/
defencesecurityasia.com/en/russian-ew-…
11/
defencesecurityasia.com/en/russian-ew-…
...as well as the GMLRS rocket whose accuracy started to be degraded in May 2023
The inability of ballistic artillery to either kinematically avoid radio jamming or use cheap commercial electronics leaves it at a cost/development time...
12/cnn.com/2023/05/05/pol…
The inability of ballistic artillery to either kinematically avoid radio jamming or use cheap commercial electronics leaves it at a cost/development time...
12/cnn.com/2023/05/05/pol…
...disadvantage compared to drones.
Only mil-spec electronics can survive a 155mm tube firing.
GMLRS isn't as disadvantaged as a gun tube, but commercial off the shelf electronics are simply orders of magnitude easier to adapt on to drones.
13/
Only mil-spec electronics can survive a 155mm tube firing.
GMLRS isn't as disadvantaged as a gun tube, but commercial off the shelf electronics are simply orders of magnitude easier to adapt on to drones.
13/
What this Baba Yaga and its PGM represents is that Ukrainian drones now surpass Western field artillery point destruction firepower in a peer-to-peer, GPS denied & heavy R/F jamming environment.
14/
14/
Field artillery will only have a mission going forward as a rapid delivery method of cluster munitions for the "area affect firepower" mission.
AKA US Army Artillery branch survival requires firing the JAG officers in the field artillery command posts.
15/15 End
AKA US Army Artillery branch survival requires firing the JAG officers in the field artillery command posts.
15/15 End
@threadreaderapp unroll please
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
