Eurasia Press & News
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a real opportunity for some of the latest weapons systems purchased by both sides to come into use, be tested and evaluated accordingly. But is this the case with Russia’s latest electronic warfare system, Repellent, which is actually an anti-drone system.
Developed in 2016 and, as far as it is known, located in Donbass, it has recently become clear that this system was destroyed by a drone of the Azerbaijani military in the Armenia-Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. According to the Russian news agency Avia.pro, the anti-drone system Repellent was destroyed in the region of Armenia at one of the country’s command posts, most likely at the border.
Comical or not, but in the conditions of development of more and more modern weapon systems, both from Russia, from the USA and the rest of the world, a bitter taste remains in the mouth when a weapon system cannot cope with its main purpose 100% . Because we are talking about a situation in which, firstly, the system failed to detect the threat at all, or secondly, the system failed to “drown” it after detecting it by affecting the electronics of the drone.
All this significantly diminishes the authority of the anti-drone system Repellent. So far, however, the circumstances of its destruction remain unclear. Military experts believe the situation may have been radically different. One of their assumptions is that the drone managed to hide behind other means of electronic warfare of the Azerbaijani army, as a result of which the anti-drone system could not fulfill its assigned task.
This military tactic is not new and is being used more and more often. It is applicable both by air and by water. Only a few months ago, it became known about two cases in which the US military used “masking” tactics – one in Chinese airspace, as they managed to hide a reconnaissance plane “behind” a civilian plane, and in late August when the US Navy covered a reconnaissance ship in the Baltic Sea behind the signal of a civilian ship, having previously switched off its transponder.
However, the question of the effectiveness of the Russian anti-drone system Repellent remains, as it is assigned important tasks for the protection of military or important administrative sites. So far, Yerevan has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations about the destroyed anti-drone system, but if we start from the fact that the information comes from Russia and a proven source so far, most likely the destruction of the system is a fact.
For reference: Armenia has a small number of electronic warfare systems, mostly Russian-made, with Soviet-era ones.
The complex is designed to solve problems of electronic intelligence and electronic suppression of radio equipment of small unmanned aerial vehicles and their ground control points. The complex will be in great demand when solving not only combat, but also anti-terrorist tasks.
The complex includes: wheeled chassis; platform with automatic leveling system; antenna lifting device; hardware container; antenna mast communication line device; platform control system; radio intelligence station; all-round camera.
“Repellent” is a highly accurate, highly efficient and mobile complex designed for remote detection, trajectory tracking, identification and neutralization of small UAVs, both in urban conditions and on any terrain.
The complex provides electronic scanning of the frequency range and space, detection, tracking, identification of targets, complex targeted electronic suppression of control channels, data transmission, telemetry and navigation-time correction based on GSRNS signals.
The Repellent complex combines two systems. Each system has unique capabilities that provide highly effective round-the-clock and all-weather countermeasures to UAVs in any environmental conditions and on any terrain.
The detection and tracking system in automatic mode carries out electronic reconnaissance and automatic direction finding of UAV radio control facilities, data transmission and telemetry from the UAV, statistical processing of signal parameters with the formation of classification features, formation of databases based on the results of electronic intelligence and signal classification according to their parameters.
The electronic suppression system provides a violation of UAV control, disruption of the UAV’s performance of tasks assigned to it by automatically or automating electronic suppression at the same time of all or selectively UAV control channels, data transmission and telemetry from the UAV board and channels for correcting navigation-time information received by the UAV from the GSRNS.
The control center of the complex is located in an armored kunga, which provides protection to servicemen during their stay inside from small arms, chemical and bacteriological weapons. At the operator’s workplace of the complex, there are two monitors, which display the electronic situation in the area of operation of the complex, as well as the presence of UAVs in the range.
