Russia Developing Anti-UAS Weapon

Russia Developing Anti-UAS Weapon

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The Russian government is backing a military research project to develop a microwave-based weapon designed to take out unmanned enemy drones from up to half a mile away.

The country’s United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) created the gun to interfere and disrupt the electronics of enemy missiles. Using the ultra-high frequency waves the weapon can completely disable aircraft communications, resulting in loss of control.

Destructive rays, which belong to a group of warfare technologies known as directed-energy weapons (DEW), will be emitted from surface-to-air Buk missile systems.

According to a United Instrument Corporation (UIC) spokesperson a unique radio-electronic weapon to disable enemy drones has been developed in Russia and may soon enter service with the Russian Armed Forces.

According to Sputnik, first radio-electronic weapons samples based on newly discovered physical principles (beam, geophysical, wave, kinetic and other types of weapons) have been first unveiled at a closed Russian Defense Ministry exhibition on the sidelines of the Army-2016 forum last month.

“Working models of these weapons have been already developed and proved their effectiveness. This is a completely new type of weapon that has no equals in this country or anywhere else in the world,” the UIC spokesperson said.

He added that the new weapons can strike targets without the use of ammunition — instead, a directed energy beam is used. Igor Korotchenko, editor-on-chief of the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) journal said that the test unit apparently uses ultrahigh frequency impulses to immobilize aircraft electronics and render them useless in a combat situation.

“With its effective range apparently not exceeding one kilometer, this weapon may be used against UAVs flying right above the battlefield”.

The Military political analyst Alexander Perendzhiyev said that the new weapon is especially effective against systems with microelectronic elements.

“It is effective because there is no way you can hide from an electronic wave. This is a kind of weapon that is meant to disarm the enemy,” he said.

It is especially effective when used against hi-tech microelectronic systems. “For example, if you have an electronic system of loading a projectile, the interference caused by this new weapon can make sure that the projectile explodes before it is fired destroying the enemy plane, drone, whatever,” Alexander Perendzhiyev noted.