Attacking UAVs and systems to counter them, review
By attacking UAVs, it is customary to mean large, missile-armed vehicles that destroy the Middle Eastern population in the name of good. Nevertheless, even the hand-crafted drone of the components available for free purchase can be effectively used as a weapon. In some cases, it is even more effective than “professional” methods of attack - even the most trained bodyguards and the highest fences will not save the quadcopter charged with a plastid with nuts suddenly crashing onto its head. In this article I will make a small overview of the attacking systems and methods of attack known to me, as well as methods of protection and counteraction to them, solely for the peaceful purpose of warning potential victims.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, UAVs or, in Western literature, "drones") appeared in peaceful life relatively recently, but they were already tightly integrated into it. They install cameras and remove weddings and events from the air (flying cameras), fly on the camera installed as entertainment (FPV flights) [1] , the market is filled with cheap radio-controlled helicopters and airplanes with an already built-in camera. The FPV movement spawned a whole industry of equipment designed to make it easier to control the model aircraft out of line of sight. This includes high-quality compact video cameras, powerful transmitters capable of transmitting video for tens of kilometers, and telemetry [2] , and even full-fledged autopilot with return modes to take-off point, flight to route points, etc. The leader in the production of FPV equipment is China, but not behind the United States, Australia and Russia, where they operate campaigns that produce FPV equipment and autopilots of their own design. Amazon and DHL companies in 2013 officially announced their intention to deliver purchases using UAVs. The only thing that stops them so far is the laws prohibiting flights of non-certified aircraft and UAVs over cities, however, companies promise to overcome this obstacle by 2015-2016 (UPD: in March 2015, Amazon did receive a test certificate from the FAA ). To paraphrase a well-known statement about computers: “now we don’t even imagine all possible areas of use of UAVs in the future.”
One of such unobvious, at first glance, areas is the use of UAVs as weapons. We are not talking about army combat systems that have been used with varying degrees of success by the armies of the world for many years. We are talking about the use of "peaceful" and available to buy UAVs and their components as a means of defeating poorly protected targets.
There are 3 types of UAVs of this kind.
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A typical kamikaze is a multicopter equipped with an explosive charge. This UAV is able to sit on the roof of the car, fly over the fence or in the window of a private property and make an explosion at the desired point. It is almost impossible to escape from him - sooner or later the goal will be within reach. The danger of this type of UAV is also in the fact that it is difficult to distinguish it from the “flying cameras” mentioned at the beginning of the article, including the paparazzi (which is also a threat in its own way). It is noteworthy that such an application of the UAV was beaten by American scriptwriters about a year ago [3] .
The second type of kamikaze, known to the author, is called the "dive-bomber." UAV aircraft scheme locks over the point of the alleged attack. Having received confirmation of the target, he dives, picking up speed as much as possible and leaving for horizontal flight opposite the target window. At the glass, at the signal of a contact or remote sensor, the wings and tails shoot, and the fuselage freely penetrates into the interior of the room, where it is exploded. Possible attack of the target from above, in this case only the wings are shot, and the tail is used for precise targeting.
In this case, the UAV is used only as a carrier of standard weapons. Back in the 80s, in the USSR, the project of a bunch of RPV "Bee" and MANPADS "Igla" was considered. MANPADS was suspended under RPVA and, in this form, the complex could patrol difficult areas. The capabilities of the “Needle” sharply increased both in height of the target's defeat and in the area of ​​action.
Today, a fully equipped radio-controlled aircraft comparable to the "Bee" carrying capacity can be bought within five hundred US dollars in one of the many online stores in China with delivery to anywhere in the world. From $ 500 to $ 1,500 will be required on the autopilot, which will keep the desired course and altitude. As a result, we get a car capable of shooting down both private and passenger aircraft, especially during the take-off and landing stages, while not giving out the operator. Of course, the launch of the "needle" will be fatal for the carrier, but the goal will be achieved with a high degree of probability.
There are also concepts with the suspension of a submachine gun for a multikopter (I know that this is a montage, but reflects the idea), bombers, hand grenades, etc.
This type of UAV is designed to automatically search for and destroy any specific target. For this, the UAV is supplied with special equipment for searching for this kind of targets.
The prototype known to the author is intended for attack of helicopters. UAV has three directional microphones. High-speed propellers of small diameter, used on UAVs, create noise of much higher frequency than the noise of a flying helicopter, which is distinguished by filters. The task of the UAV is to go out across the flight path of the helicopter so that the latter will “run” on it. First of all, pilots are affected, because The transport helicopter reservation scheme involves an attack from below and at small angles, the upper hemisphere is almost always open. Tests have shown that the UAV reliably finds a helicopter in the air and is especially effective at night when pilots prefer straight-line movements without abrupt maneuvers. Against a civilian helicopter that does not expect an attack, such a UAV can be effectively used at any time of the day. In the USA, where the laws on private aviation are much softer than Russian ones, many businessmen and politicians use private helicopters and light-engined airplanes for movement. New Yorkers watch a “raid” every morning, and in the evening an “exodus” of whole flocks of such cars from the city. This makes it profitable to develop such systems of destruction, and any of the helicopters may be the target of the “searcher”.
Other ways of finding a target are possible, for example, based on image recognition systems, where the UAV determines the target visually. Such prototypes are known to the author, but their application is still difficult. Nevertheless, given the speed of development and miniaturization of microprocessor technology, the refinement of such systems is a matter for the coming decade.
It is worth mentioning this type of threat, as hijacked UAV. In 2011, Iran announced the interception and forced landing on its territory of the American intelligence UAV RQ-170 Sentinel . According to the Iranians, they adjusted the UAV course in the right direction by selectively jamming GPS. And, although the US insists on the version of the UAV crash, and not the hijacking, the fact that Iran has its operational RQ-170 was, as a result, recognized by them .
It is known for certain that the video surveillance and data transmission systems of American UAVs, until recently, were encrypted using standard methods or were not encrypted at all.
“According to the Wall Street Journal, the data transmission channel from the UAV to the ground control center is a weak point of UAVs. For the first time, this vulnerability of drones became known in the 1990s during a military operation in Bosnia. The Pentagon was warned about this, but decided not to do anything, because he considered that local resistance "would never know how to exploit this vulnerability". "
However, they learned , and this allowed the Iraqis for several years to freely intercept data transmitted from various UAVs, using freely sold equipment and software.
Against the background of such blatant miscalculations and underestimations of the enemy, the interception of UAV control no longer seems a fantastic task, but comes down to an engineering task. And this means that any UAV, including military, equipped with missile weapons, theoretically, can be directed against any desired target.
Computer viruses are also dangerous, and the fact of infection of the Predator and Reaper UAVs has already been recorded.
Today, two opposing movements are gaining popularity in the west. One is engaged in the development of attacking UAVs and systems based on them. Fortunately, for the time being, these are mostly relatively open campaigns that plan to sell their products and technologies to the army and other legal militarized organizations in the future. The second side understands that underground developments are also going, and therefore is in a hurry to present an antidote on the market and occupy a promising niche.
To date, the weak point of such UAVs (ie, UAVs of artisanal assembly) is the widespread use in the design of commercially available components for FPV. Speaking of telemetry, video and information transmitters, we can distinguish standard frequency bands, such as 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz, 1.3 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz. The transmitter power is significant - from 200 mW to 1,500 mW, which allows one to determine the approximation of the UAV or its presence in the area fairly accurately and in advance. An indirect sign of presence (D) of a UAV is also a signal from a radio control transmitter. The most common frequencies on the territory of the Russian Federation are 35-41 MHz [4] and, more recently, 2.4 GHz. Possible to scan acoustic and electromagnetic noise. Most modern UAVs use electric brushless motors that consume currents up to 100A. Switching the motor windings by the switch creates a specific electromagnetic background detected at distances up to 100m.
Of interest are ways to actively counter UAVs. Conventional small arms are ineffective against them, in addition, it is dangerous to others and requires a license to purchase in most countries. This also includes projects of laser weapons - effective in terms of hitting low-flying small targets, but no less dangerous in peacetime. Also known are the projects of automatic mines and anti-aircraft guns, intercepting the flight of a UAV, determining the height and firing a fragmentation projectile with a barometric sensor.
Among the developed safe countering methods are the following: radio interference, including against GPS / Glonass receivers, blinding of cameras with infrared searchlights, creating invisible air vortex curtains along private domains, including “smart curtains” activated suddenly by signals from sensors and creating a directional whirlwind in order to overturn and smash the UAVs that have violated the borders, install protective nets, even create special UAVs to combat the UAV, for example, by dropping nets or strings on rage drone.
The task of searching and neutralizing attacking UAVs is a new (in the civilian area) and an increasingly new direction of robotics and security, a new young market. With the UAV, armed, for the present, only with cameras, celebrities and public figures are already facing today. Such a UAV flew "to visit" even to the head of the special committee on intelligence of the US Senate Diana Feinstein , easily overcoming all the security cordons. The simplicity of building such UAVs and the availability of components makes them a dangerous weapon in capable hands.
Sr Dikoy, Ph.D., AviaDevices LLC, Opa-locka, USA.
1. “First Person View (FPV) - a first-person view. Such an abbreviation is called one of the directions of radio-controlled aircraft modeling. In this case, not only is the control of the aircraft model over the radio channel of the radio control system, but also the reception of the video image from the model via the additional video radio channel in real time. The pilot controlling the model aircraft sees the image obtained from the video camera using display devices such as a monitor, TV, video glasses. ”: Wikipedia .
2. "Telemetry or OSD (On-Screen Display - display (information) on the screen) allows you to display flight information useful for the pilot (height, direction, speed, voltage and current consumption from the onboard battery, the distance to" home "and much other). Based on these data, the stabilization system and autopilot can work. ”: Wikipedia .
3. The series "Mentalist", the sixth season, the second series: mentalist-online: mentalist-online.net/online/6-season/2-seria-6-season.html
4. Appendix 5 to the decision of the State Committee on Radio Frequency Protection of 7 May 2007 No. 07-20-03-001 on frequencies for radio-controlled models and toys.
Disclaimer
The article was written almost 2 years ago by order of one, now deceased, magazine, which never had time to publish it. Therefore, some information in it, today, is already quite bayanist, but there is also an interesting actual info. I think the material is still quite interesting and deserves to be published. I publish almost unchanged, from the bored style.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, UAVs or, in Western literature, "drones") appeared in peaceful life relatively recently, but they were already tightly integrated into it. They install cameras and remove weddings and events from the air (flying cameras), fly on the camera installed as entertainment (FPV flights) [1] , the market is filled with cheap radio-controlled helicopters and airplanes with an already built-in camera. The FPV movement spawned a whole industry of equipment designed to make it easier to control the model aircraft out of line of sight. This includes high-quality compact video cameras, powerful transmitters capable of transmitting video for tens of kilometers, and telemetry [2] , and even full-fledged autopilot with return modes to take-off point, flight to route points, etc. The leader in the production of FPV equipment is China, but not behind the United States, Australia and Russia, where they operate campaigns that produce FPV equipment and autopilots of their own design. Amazon and DHL companies in 2013 officially announced their intention to deliver purchases using UAVs. The only thing that stops them so far is the laws prohibiting flights of non-certified aircraft and UAVs over cities, however, companies promise to overcome this obstacle by 2015-2016 (UPD: in March 2015, Amazon did receive a test certificate from the FAA ). To paraphrase a well-known statement about computers: “now we don’t even imagine all possible areas of use of UAVs in the future.”
One of such unobvious, at first glance, areas is the use of UAVs as weapons. We are not talking about army combat systems that have been used with varying degrees of success by the armies of the world for many years. We are talking about the use of "peaceful" and available to buy UAVs and their components as a means of defeating poorly protected targets.
There are 3 types of UAVs of this kind.
')
1. Kamikaze
A typical kamikaze is a multicopter equipped with an explosive charge. This UAV is able to sit on the roof of the car, fly over the fence or in the window of a private property and make an explosion at the desired point. It is almost impossible to escape from him - sooner or later the goal will be within reach. The danger of this type of UAV is also in the fact that it is difficult to distinguish it from the “flying cameras” mentioned at the beginning of the article, including the paparazzi (which is also a threat in its own way). It is noteworthy that such an application of the UAV was beaten by American scriptwriters about a year ago [3] .
The second type of kamikaze, known to the author, is called the "dive-bomber." UAV aircraft scheme locks over the point of the alleged attack. Having received confirmation of the target, he dives, picking up speed as much as possible and leaving for horizontal flight opposite the target window. At the glass, at the signal of a contact or remote sensor, the wings and tails shoot, and the fuselage freely penetrates into the interior of the room, where it is exploded. Possible attack of the target from above, in this case only the wings are shot, and the tail is used for precise targeting.
2. Mule
In this case, the UAV is used only as a carrier of standard weapons. Back in the 80s, in the USSR, the project of a bunch of RPV "Bee" and MANPADS "Igla" was considered. MANPADS was suspended under RPVA and, in this form, the complex could patrol difficult areas. The capabilities of the “Needle” sharply increased both in height of the target's defeat and in the area of ​​action.
Today, a fully equipped radio-controlled aircraft comparable to the "Bee" carrying capacity can be bought within five hundred US dollars in one of the many online stores in China with delivery to anywhere in the world. From $ 500 to $ 1,500 will be required on the autopilot, which will keep the desired course and altitude. As a result, we get a car capable of shooting down both private and passenger aircraft, especially during the take-off and landing stages, while not giving out the operator. Of course, the launch of the "needle" will be fatal for the carrier, but the goal will be achieved with a high degree of probability.
There are also concepts with the suspension of a submachine gun for a multikopter (I know that this is a montage, but reflects the idea), bombers, hand grenades, etc.
3. Seeker
This type of UAV is designed to automatically search for and destroy any specific target. For this, the UAV is supplied with special equipment for searching for this kind of targets.
The prototype known to the author is intended for attack of helicopters. UAV has three directional microphones. High-speed propellers of small diameter, used on UAVs, create noise of much higher frequency than the noise of a flying helicopter, which is distinguished by filters. The task of the UAV is to go out across the flight path of the helicopter so that the latter will “run” on it. First of all, pilots are affected, because The transport helicopter reservation scheme involves an attack from below and at small angles, the upper hemisphere is almost always open. Tests have shown that the UAV reliably finds a helicopter in the air and is especially effective at night when pilots prefer straight-line movements without abrupt maneuvers. Against a civilian helicopter that does not expect an attack, such a UAV can be effectively used at any time of the day. In the USA, where the laws on private aviation are much softer than Russian ones, many businessmen and politicians use private helicopters and light-engined airplanes for movement. New Yorkers watch a “raid” every morning, and in the evening an “exodus” of whole flocks of such cars from the city. This makes it profitable to develop such systems of destruction, and any of the helicopters may be the target of the “searcher”.
Other ways of finding a target are possible, for example, based on image recognition systems, where the UAV determines the target visually. Such prototypes are known to the author, but their application is still difficult. Nevertheless, given the speed of development and miniaturization of microprocessor technology, the refinement of such systems is a matter for the coming decade.
Other types of threats
It is worth mentioning this type of threat, as hijacked UAV. In 2011, Iran announced the interception and forced landing on its territory of the American intelligence UAV RQ-170 Sentinel . According to the Iranians, they adjusted the UAV course in the right direction by selectively jamming GPS. And, although the US insists on the version of the UAV crash, and not the hijacking, the fact that Iran has its operational RQ-170 was, as a result, recognized by them .
It is known for certain that the video surveillance and data transmission systems of American UAVs, until recently, were encrypted using standard methods or were not encrypted at all.
“According to the Wall Street Journal, the data transmission channel from the UAV to the ground control center is a weak point of UAVs. For the first time, this vulnerability of drones became known in the 1990s during a military operation in Bosnia. The Pentagon was warned about this, but decided not to do anything, because he considered that local resistance "would never know how to exploit this vulnerability". "
However, they learned , and this allowed the Iraqis for several years to freely intercept data transmitted from various UAVs, using freely sold equipment and software.
Against the background of such blatant miscalculations and underestimations of the enemy, the interception of UAV control no longer seems a fantastic task, but comes down to an engineering task. And this means that any UAV, including military, equipped with missile weapons, theoretically, can be directed against any desired target.
Computer viruses are also dangerous, and the fact of infection of the Predator and Reaper UAVs has already been recorded.
Today, two opposing movements are gaining popularity in the west. One is engaged in the development of attacking UAVs and systems based on them. Fortunately, for the time being, these are mostly relatively open campaigns that plan to sell their products and technologies to the army and other legal militarized organizations in the future. The second side understands that underground developments are also going, and therefore is in a hurry to present an antidote on the market and occupy a promising niche.
Ways to protect against attacking UAVs
To date, the weak point of such UAVs (ie, UAVs of artisanal assembly) is the widespread use in the design of commercially available components for FPV. Speaking of telemetry, video and information transmitters, we can distinguish standard frequency bands, such as 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz, 1.3 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz. The transmitter power is significant - from 200 mW to 1,500 mW, which allows one to determine the approximation of the UAV or its presence in the area fairly accurately and in advance. An indirect sign of presence (D) of a UAV is also a signal from a radio control transmitter. The most common frequencies on the territory of the Russian Federation are 35-41 MHz [4] and, more recently, 2.4 GHz. Possible to scan acoustic and electromagnetic noise. Most modern UAVs use electric brushless motors that consume currents up to 100A. Switching the motor windings by the switch creates a specific electromagnetic background detected at distances up to 100m.
Of interest are ways to actively counter UAVs. Conventional small arms are ineffective against them, in addition, it is dangerous to others and requires a license to purchase in most countries. This also includes projects of laser weapons - effective in terms of hitting low-flying small targets, but no less dangerous in peacetime. Also known are the projects of automatic mines and anti-aircraft guns, intercepting the flight of a UAV, determining the height and firing a fragmentation projectile with a barometric sensor.
Among the developed safe countering methods are the following: radio interference, including against GPS / Glonass receivers, blinding of cameras with infrared searchlights, creating invisible air vortex curtains along private domains, including “smart curtains” activated suddenly by signals from sensors and creating a directional whirlwind in order to overturn and smash the UAVs that have violated the borders, install protective nets, even create special UAVs to combat the UAV, for example, by dropping nets or strings on rage drone.
The task of searching and neutralizing attacking UAVs is a new (in the civilian area) and an increasingly new direction of robotics and security, a new young market. With the UAV, armed, for the present, only with cameras, celebrities and public figures are already facing today. Such a UAV flew "to visit" even to the head of the special committee on intelligence of the US Senate Diana Feinstein , easily overcoming all the security cordons. The simplicity of building such UAVs and the availability of components makes them a dangerous weapon in capable hands.
Sr Dikoy, Ph.D., AviaDevices LLC, Opa-locka, USA.
List of sources
1. “First Person View (FPV) - a first-person view. Such an abbreviation is called one of the directions of radio-controlled aircraft modeling. In this case, not only is the control of the aircraft model over the radio channel of the radio control system, but also the reception of the video image from the model via the additional video radio channel in real time. The pilot controlling the model aircraft sees the image obtained from the video camera using display devices such as a monitor, TV, video glasses. ”: Wikipedia .
2. "Telemetry or OSD (On-Screen Display - display (information) on the screen) allows you to display flight information useful for the pilot (height, direction, speed, voltage and current consumption from the onboard battery, the distance to" home "and much other). Based on these data, the stabilization system and autopilot can work. ”: Wikipedia .
3. The series "Mentalist", the sixth season, the second series: mentalist-online: mentalist-online.net/online/6-season/2-seria-6-season.html
4. Appendix 5 to the decision of the State Committee on Radio Frequency Protection of 7 May 2007 No. 07-20-03-001 on frequencies for radio-controlled models and toys.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/365625/
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