The West looked in amazement at the return of the traditional war with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Photographs of rows of tanks, cannons and trucks, reminiscent of World War II and past wars.
But alongside the traditional war, this is one of the first wars in which skimmers and unmanned aerial vehicles were used very extensively.
Although even in the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other conflicts, such as the fighting in Yemen, this was done, this time it can certainly be said that the small aircraft, some carrying deadly armaments and others providing critical intelligence, are an integral part of the war in Europe.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian defense minister called on the owners of small skimmers to mobilize for combat and use them for various missions, and the residents complied with the request.
According to various reports, dozens of skimmers were provided to Ukrainian forces by Latvian companies, to aid in the struggle.
At the same time, the Ukrainian army used Turkish-made UAV Bayraktar TB2 drones, which it purchased in 2019, to destroy command posts, vehicles that operate electronic warfare and more. It is estimated that Ukraine has about 50 such drones.
Russia, too, does not put its hand on the plate, and operates drones and drones for the benefit of bombing and intelligence missions. Ukrainian.
The Ukrainian army shot down a UAV of this type over Zhytomyr Oblast last Friday. Last Saturday, a Russian Kamikaze UAV attacked targets in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
"We see in the fighting in Ukraine a very proper management of drones and drones by the Ukrainian defense forces who are a smaller army than the Russians and they are making names for their surplus forces with these tools," said Brigadier General (Res.) Zvika Haimovich, former commander of the defense The IDF air force, and now a member of the security movement, the situation in Ukraine. And while stopping a surplus army over him. "
Assaf Leibowitz, an expert in the field of remotely manned aircraft, explains that "this is a very developing field, which is already significant in combat and with the growth of technology in the field, we see even more enormous development."
He notes that "drones today are flexible in many guided missiles, they carry a sensor that brings them to the target and also the explosive, and you do not have to risk neither a pilot nor a fighter who will indicate for the drone what to attack.
IAI logo in a photo attributed to the downing of a Russian UAV, Photo: Social Networks
He notes that a drone is capable of flying at speeds of up to 300 mph and performing particularly sophisticated maneuvers.
"This technology is evolving and becoming more lethal, accurate, cheap and does not endanger the attacking side at all. Using these tools you can hit the enemy in the middle of a city very accurately, and without any auxiliary force in the field."
The use of protective force, in this case Ukraine, in drones and drones, says Haimovich, is particularly effective.
In the past, it has been possible to see how the Houthi rebels in Yemen remotely attack the Saudi army and inflict heavy losses on it, and this is also true in the case of Ukraine.
"In terms of defensive forces there is a great advantage to such tools, which disrupt the movement of forces, disturb and create fear in the attackers. These are supposedly small cruise missiles, which are difficult to detect because they fly at low altitudes and high speeds, hitting targets accurately. That they allow for a devastating surprise attack, sometimes of many hundreds of skimmers and drones, with even 100 kilograms of explosives.
It is a game tool that completely changes the threats that exist on the battlefield and requires a new deployment of all parties. "
"The optics of the tools allow them to be flown at night, and it is also difficult to drop them more because the anti-aircraft protection systems are not suitable for them and are also very expensive," says Leibowitz.
"The interceptors or planes that fire on these tools are very expensive, and this creates a problem - they operate cheap tools in front of you that are difficult and very expensive to drop. The State of Israel has the Iron Dome system, but the rest of the world does not - and we see how the Houthis easily damaged On Abu Dhabi, without them being arrested.
This is not a trivial matter, and the armies of the world are aware of the challenge, even if it does not yet have a perfect solution.
The US military recently unveiled a project called "Thor", a hint at the hammer of the Nordic god Thor, who according to mythology has enormous power, with the aim of eliminating UAV swarms, with the understanding that this is a particularly deadly and dangerous threat.
This is a system that uses microwave radiation to disable drones and drones quickly, by damaging their electronic system.
A prototype of the system had already been deployed in Africa in 2020 for testing, and according to the U.S. Air Force it has shot down hundreds of remotely manned aircraft so far.
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