As summer kicks in, a new flying species swarm Ukrainian skies—making cities dangerous, even unliveable. The threat comes from Russia’s newly invented drones, immune to jamming. Penetrating Ukrainian airspace with near impunity, these kamikaze drones bomb border supply and troop convoys, even entire neighbourhoods, enabling the Kremlin to capture more territory than it has in the past year—without extra boots on the ground.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Russia invented jamming-proof Gerbera drones because 80 per cent of their attack drones were destroyed by the Ukrainians who intercepted their radio signals. So, Russia replaced interceptible wireless digital communication with undetectable analog fibre-optic cables that tethered the drone to a vehicle parked near the frontline. Attached to the drone is a lightweight cylinder from which unspools thin optic-fibre cable as it flies—up to 20km into Ukrainian territory. In the vehicles, drone-controllers guide the camera-equipped, cable-connected Gerbera to chosen targets and detonate. Unless the cable breaks in mid-flight, Gerbera provides high-quality video until impact.
Imaging: Deni Lal
To move forward, Russia took a step back to the ancient goatherd concept of tethering. Devoid of signals, Gerbera escapes detection. Russia deployed Gerbera squadrons to recapture Kursk and destroy Ukrainian border infrastructure. Located 10km from the frontlines, Ukrainian logistics hub Kostyantynivka’s pre-war population of 65,000 has dwindled to 8,000 due to relentless Gerbera attacks. Forecasting a summer in hell, Russia bombarded Ukraine one night in its biggest-ever attack with 500 drones and 60 missiles. Gerbera is a “game-changer”, the way Ukrainian drones were when war began in 2022, say ‘milbloggers’—a sub-species of military bloggers who report from the warfront. The combat-tested, cost-effective, ‘fly-by-wire’ Gerbera can be deterred only by physically shooting down or entangling them. Like in an aviary, key frontline Ukrainian buildings and routes are now covered in tunnels of netting to ensnare encroaching drones. But there are videos of Gerbera sneaking and flying under the net.
Deception, diversity and adaptation are fundamental to survival. As in nature, so in war. Like Covid-variants, Russia has diverse drone variants. They include cheap “dummy” look-alikes of imported Iranian Shahed drones. Made of plywood and plastic and using 4G SIM for Wi-Fi connection, they drown, distract and deceive Ukrainian air defence systems, tricking them into wasting expensive anti-aircraft ammunition. Half the drones involved in major attacks are decoys. Meanwhile, deep-strike drones are upgraded with jet engines, enabling them to fly faster and higher with bigger payloads. Sounds Trumpian, but this is true.
Russian analogue tactics persist. Troops dismount chunky, “sitting duck” tanks to ride pesky motorcycles; foot soldiers crawl bombed fields to ambush camouflaged Ukrainian trenches. Authorities and elders find drones annoying; kids love them. To teach children to operate drones, the Kremlin plans to lower age restrictions from 10 to seven. War is the laboratory of innovation. As Gerbera swarm battlefields, Ukraine races to invent its drone variants and countermeasures. In this cat-and-mouse technological warfare, Ukraine is labelled the nimble innovator and Russia the lumbering war machine. They are. But Gerbera shows Russia can be a nifty ninja too, like its leader.
The Russian-Ukrainian drone death-dance is a manifestation of Leela—the cosmic play described in Hindu scriptures. Rivalry, threat, loss and recovery spiral in the evolutionary interplay of creation and destruction, survival and extinction. Man and machine adapt. The next generation of AI-drones will forever transform war—and peace. The global military-industrial complex swells. Hi-tech soars. Low-tech lingers. An urban legend states that Americans spent millions to make a pen that could write in zero-gravity space. Russians used pencil.
Pratap is an author and journalist.