According to a Wall Street Journal report, a new drone being developed by San Diego-based Shield AI was successfully field-tested in Ukraine in August. The vertical takeoff and landing V-BAT reconnaissance UAV can negate Russia’s EW advantage in Ukraine through its ability to operate in a communication (comms) and GPS-denied environment, using a combination of AI and optical sensors.
According to Brandon Tseng, president and co-founder of Shield AI, during the V-BAT trials, Ukrainian forces launched the V-BAT from about 40 km from the front. The drone “flew 100 km past the front line of troops and then found these SA-11 surface-to-air missiles, targeted them, called in HIMARS airburst rounds” to destroy the SAMs.
The drones were able to collect targeting data and relay it to artillery units in the face of the most sophisticated electronic warfare tactics on earth.
Ukraine currently has kamikaze drones that can operate in comms and GPS-denied environments by switching to inertial navigation (IN) on one-way attack (OWA) missions. However, IN is prone to inaccuracy, which increases with flight time.
In case of GPS jamming by the adversary, V-BAT drones can accurately fix their ground positions through image correlation algorithms using their optical sensors. They can also identify their targets using the optical sensors and relay target coordinates to a howitzer or HIMARS MLRS. In case of comms denial, they can move out of the jamming area and then relay the coordinates.
The ability to pass data quickly back to a fire solution is essential to taking out adversary positions.
The V-BAT is a relatively large drone with a 500 km range. In horizontal mode, it can loiter over the target area for 10 hours. In contrast, kamikaze drones currently available with Ukrainian forces cannot fly beyond 100 km and have a loiter time of 10 to 15 minutes.
Notwithstanding its larger size, the drone is small enough to fit in an SUV. More importantly, its vertical takeoff and landing capability gives the Ukrainians scoot and shoot. The ability also facilitates launch from ships and austere terrain.
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Before the August trials, a Shield AI team tested the V-BAT’s EW resilience in June in Ukraine. According to a Ukrainian military report obtained by Defense One, the drones were able to work under intense jamming that would render other drones inoperable.
“We flew within 1,000 m of these jammers. No impact to our aircraft. It was wildly successful,” Tseng said.
Technical Features
V-BAT features a single Suter TOA 288 two-cylinder engine that powers a ducted fan. The duct increases thrust by 80%+ at equivalent engine power, enabling take-off and landing with a single power plan.
The drone has a payload capacity of 11.3 kg and a service ceiling of 6 km.
The sensor fit comprises EO / mid-wave infrared (MWIR) cameras for high-resolution imaging in diverse lighting conditions. The drone can be assembled by 2 personnel in under 20 minutes.
Swarm Operations
The V-BAT is capable of swarm operations. A single operator can control a minimum of five drones, with drone flight paths generated autonomously in real-time. Outside of lethal decision-making, the drone can complete its mission, start to finish, without an operator in the loop.
The drones can operate even if they cannot communicate with each other. When they can communicate with each other, they can operate as a team. V-BAT teams enable operations in comms and GPS-denied environments by using a state estimation framework that is built without using GPS. Instead, it relies on shared sensor information to build up a common operating picture.
Tseng said the next step is to integrate missiles into the drone itself.
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Limiting EW Effectiveness
Since the start of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine in February 2022, drone warfare has advanced rapidly, and drones have become increasingly lethal. Consequently, counter drone systems too have evolved rapidly.
Kinetic counter-drone systems, such as interceptor drones, ground-based air defense guns and missiles, and helicopter gunships, have serious geographical limitations.
Despite its imperfections, EW remains the most effective counter-drone technology because of the volume of airspace that it can cover.
The only effective counter to EW is visual flight, navigation, and attack. The combination of AI and optical sensors allows drones to undertake reconnaissance and attack missions without the use of radio transmissions, just like combat pilots until the 1960s.
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The only problem is that AI-based visual navigation and target attacks become challenging under certain atmospheric conditions. For example, MWIR radiation, which typically covers wavelengths from 3 to 5 micrometers, has limited ability to penetrate clouds and haze. In other words, AI has the same limitations as human pilots!
V-BAT vs Russian Drones
Russia has used a combination of AI and optical sensors with its Lancet Izdeliye 52 kamikaze drones. Aeroscan’s Izdeliye 53 kamikaze drones, which are capable of swarm operations, can dynamically create a composite picture from the optical sensors of all the drones in the swarm to identify all possible targets in the target area. The drones can then allocate themselves a target based on the type of warhead that they are carrying.
However, the Izdeliye 52 and 53 are both kamikaze drones. The lethality of the warhead that they deliver is considerably less than the lethality of a HIMARS rocket that V-BAT can bring to bear on a target.
Russia’s Orion drone performs a role similar to the V-BAT from a higher (30,000 ft) altitude. Its loiter capability is also greater. In addition to relaying target coordinates to artillery units, the Orion can additionally mark the target using a laser for pinpoint accuracy of the artillery fire.
However, it’s unlikely that the Orion has the same resilience against EW as the V-BAT. For one, the computing horsepower that goes into the V-BAT, in the form of NVIDIA processors, is much greater than what would be fitted on the Orion.
Conclusion
There is no silver bullet that can bring Ukraine victory. While there can be little doubt that the V-BAT will pose serious challenges to the continued advance of Russian forces in Donbass, the drone is highly unlikely to reverse the course of the war.
- Vijainder K Thakur is a retired IAF Jaguar pilot, author, software architect, entrepreneur, and military analyst.
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