RAF FAIRFORD, England—Ukraine is transitioning to the “correct side of the cost curve” in its ongoing battle to deal with Russian one-way attack uncrewed air systems (UAS), says the most senior U.S. Air Force general in Europe.
Russia has employed thousands of Iranian-developed Shahed delta-winged attack drones as slow-moving cruise missiles in a bid to force Ukraine to burn through its stocks of ready-to-fire missiles. When Moscow first employed the tactic it was effective, but now Ukraine’s air defense forces have adapted to deal with the threat, says Gen. James Hecker, Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Commander of NATO’s Allied Air Command.
“Ukraine is actually doing a pretty good job there [dealing with one-way attack drones],” Hecker said at the Royal International Air Tattoo on July 20. "They have their backs up against the wall, so they need to develop.”
Hecker provided significant new detail on Ukraine’s low-cost acoustic sensor array. Called Skyfortress, the system uses some 9,500 sensors located across the Ukrainian countryside to detect threats.
“Their idea was to put a cellphone on a 6-ft. [tall] pole and put a microphone next to it and listen for the one-way [uncrewed air vehicles] that come their way,” Hecker told journalists. “They get very accurate information synthesized in a central computer and sent out to all the fire teams who have an iPad showing the route of flight of these one-way UAVs coming in."
The simplicity of the system means that conscripts with just a few hours of training can be employed to engage and shoot down the systems.
Skyfortress had already proved its worth when an 84-strong raid of one-way UAS was successfully engaged with some 80 downed, Hecker said. Capabilities of the system have also been verified with a test at Ramstein AB in Germany and trials on a weapons range in Romania.
Each tower costs $400-$500 and does not have to deal with “curvature of the Earth issues” that conventional affect sensors such as radar, Hecker added.
Ukraine’s advancements in the acoustic sensors have prompted other NATO nations to look at the technology, Hecker said.
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