Bayraktar TB2 Attack Drone Effective Against Russian Military?

Bayraktar TB2 Attack Drone Effective Against Russian Military?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky (left) (February 3, 2022, photo: AP/Aflo)

(Kuon Nuta: novelist, military critic, former SDF officer) There are fears that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may occur right now. If the invasion begins, both Russia and Ukraine are likely to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but the UAV that attracts the most attention is probably the Bayraktar TB2, which Ukraine has introduced from Turkey. [Photo] Unmanned attack aircraft Bayraktar TB2. Ukraine has introduced 12 aircraft. The Bayraktar TB2 was used by the Azerbaijan side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that occurred in 2020, and the results of the war were widely spread as images, making the usefulness of UAVs widely recognized throughout the world. Ukraine has 12 Bayraktar TB2s, and many expect them to be effective against invading Russian forces, as they were during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. (I bet you are also expecting the spread of the video). On the other hand, there are also voices claiming that "Bayraktar TB2 is useless against the Russian regular army." Such claims are based on the actual situation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the fact that Bayraktar TB2 was shot down in Syria and Libya. In this article, I would like to explain the background of these facts and verify whether Bayraktar TB2 would function in the event of a Russian invasion. ■Will Bayraktar TB2 be shot down? Bayraktar TB2 has a lot of shot down information, but instead of relying on such information here, we will discuss the possibility of shooting down by various interception methods while talking a little technically.

[Can it be detected by radar and IRST?] In order to shoot down the Bayraktar TB2 in flight, it must first be detected. Radar is the main means of aerial search today, but some people believe that Bayraktar TB2 cannot be detected by radar. "One of the reasons is that the aircraft is small, so there is little radar reflection." Technically, it is expressed as "RCS (Radar cross-section) is small". However, even though the aircraft is small, it is not a full-fledged stealth aircraft. A full-fledged stealth design would be at a disadvantage in terms of aerodynamics, so it seems that Bayraktar TB2 was not designed to be stealthy, emphasizing long-time flight performance. The Bayraktar TB2's RCS has not been announced, but it should be considerably larger than a full-fledged stealth aircraft that is said to be on par with birds and insects. The Self-Defense Forces have been using drones as targets for various training since the Showa era. They're even smaller than the Bayraktar TB2, about the size of a missile, but they're still visible on radar. It is possible to use it for training as a target because it is reflected. However, during training, to adjust the RCS to the intended target, we often wear something called a reflector to adjust the RCS. Those who think that "radars cannot detect Bayraktar TB2" may cite another reason. Bayraktar TB2 is slow. Modern radars enhance target acquisition by observing the frequency (wavelength) displacement of the radio waves emitted toward the target and the reflected waves. This is signal processing called "MTI (moving-target indicator) processing". It is used to reliably capture a target in an electronic warfare environment with a large amount of electromagnetic noise, or in an environment where there are many reflected waves other than the target called clutter. This is signal processing using Doppler displacement, in which the frequency of the reflected wave increases when the target approaches and decreases when the target moves away, and is one type of gate processing. Since it is gate processing, if the signal is repelled by the gate, that is, in this case, the signal without Doppler displacement will be erased as noise. As a result, targets that are neither closer nor farther away disappear.

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