After its use heavy by Russian forces against Ukraine: Kiev ask for NATO help to find solution for the Iranian-made Shahid 136 drones

A small drone flew over, followed by an explosion resulting from a projectile dropped on a Ukrainian target.

A Video footage on a giant screen dedicated to a gathering of soldiers from several European countries, NATO officials and defense companies, who gathered last week at the Vredepeel military base in the Netherlands.

A Former Commander at the Dutch Royal Air Force, William Quedam, a NATO expert in counter-drone systems (C-UAS), says that these drones are small and fast, and finding a way to counter them is a complex issue, however, such a complex solution isn’t impossible.

Around 57 companies went to Vredepeel base to showcase their products that are supposed to be able to confront almost all threats, from drones sold in the markets to the Iranian-made Shahid 136 used by the Russian army in Ukraine.

In this context, Ludwig Fruhauf, head of the German company DDTS, which specializes in anti-drone systems, says, “The best way to kill a witness is a jet plane without a drone of the same size”.

Fruhauf confirms that his drone can fly at a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, while the speed of the Iranian Shahid could barely exceed 180 kilometers per hour.

He also points out that its cost is much lower than the cost of the missile used by classic anti-aircraft defense means.

But the threat also comes from much smaller drones, and it can kill, and it can cause serious damage to essential infrastructure, such as thermal power plants or pumping stations.

Meanwhile, the best way to neutralize a drone isn’t necessarily limited to destroying it.

In some cases, it’s better to capture or divert it, if neutralizing it would endanger troops or infrastructure.

From this standpoint, a German company, Argus Interception, in cooperation with others, developed a system for net hunting an enemy drone.

But this can happen after they are monitored, either using radars, cameras, or communications frequency monitoring stations used to direct the drones.

In this context, once the location of the intruding aircraft is determined, an unmanned interceptor aircraft takes off.

It’s automatically directed from the ground station to approach the enemy drone before launching a net to catch it.

“Once captured, it can be moved to a safe location, and it’s particularly effective for protecting airports,” says Christian Sköning, president of Argos Interpretation.

According to Captain Ionut-Vlad Cozmuta of the Romanian Air Force, this isn’t necessarily the answer to the Russian drone threat.

Debris of drones, similar to those used by the Russian army, have been found several times in recent weeks on Romanian territory.

Hence, Bucharest seeks to ensure better protection of its territory against possible drone attacks.

Accordingly, Captain Ionut-Vlad Cozmuta closely followed the large-scale exercises that took place this week at the Dutch Vredepeel base.

“We’re in the process of developing our anti-drone capabilities and we are here to collect the necessary information… Therefore, distraction may be a solution”.

But in this area, the issue isn’t about seizing the drone, but rather jamming it, because this leads to disrupting communications with its operator, and then it returns to its base automatically, due to the lack of clear information about its destination.

Better yet, there is another technology that allows you to control it and direct it where you want.

It’s still necessary for all these systems to be able to communicate with each other.

This past week, NATO sought to find a common standard for this, which was achieved through the Sapient system, which was developed in Britain.

Dutch General Hans Vollmer, a senior official at NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCI), told the press that this would bring huge benefits to the alliance.

There were no Ukrainian soldiers present this week during these drone defense exercises.

Meanwhile, NATO is conducting an ongoing dialogue with Ukraine on these issues.

According to NATO scientific adviser, Claudio Palestini, “The Ukrainians are constantly innovating on the ground, which makes it easy to identify needs”.