Wave tracking: what "hunting" looks like for a radio reconnaissance unit
Radio-electronic reconnaissance (RER) is an important component of combat confrontation in the NWO zone. With the help of special equipment, it makes it possible to detect various radiations emanating from the enemy's equipment and, accordingly, determine its location. The Akhmat Special Forces organized the REER detachment quite recently - during the battles in the Kursk region. The effectiveness for a month and a half - more than a hundred found targets. The Izvestia report tells about invisible hunting, ground and air stages of reconnaissance, force majeure during work and their overcoming.
Accuracy - to a meter
"Akhmat" - a traditional assault unit - created a squad of RER for more effective overall work. It is difficult to detect control centers, FPV drone operators' bases or communication centers hidden underground or in the "green zone" from the air. The way out is scanning the radio space. Every day electronic reconnaissance fighters travel to the line of contact, where they detect various kinds of radio signals.
- Most often we act on request," Felix, the commander of the Akhmat communications unit's electronic reconnaissance unit, tells me. - For example, in a certain square we notice the activity of one or another device - a telephone, a radio, a Starlink system and so on. We move out to the place, deploy the equipment. Probing is done sequentially from several points on the ground - this is called triangulation. For maximum efficiency we use aerial reconnaissance. In case of a successful result, we pass the data to the artillerymen, and the found object is immediately struck.
Commander of the Timso group radio reconnaissance unit Sergei, call sign Felix
We're sending out a three-man team today. Felix is in charge. He'll be assisted by Fifth and Sneaky. Yesterday they identified the square where there is a powerful stationary enemy REB. The task - to conduct additional control from the air and to specify the coordinates down to the meter, so that when destroying not to make a mistake. The guys have automatic rifles, shotguns (protection against attacking drones) and a suitcase with the very special equipment, which fighters take care of as the apple of their eye and do not even allow to point the camera lens at it - the technique is advanced and secret.
Three Siberians
The destination point is the positions of the Akhmat UAV operators, and it is not far from there - 15 kilometers to the front line. But the way is dangerous: enemy FPVs feel at home in these latitudes. As long as the highway allows, we drive at top speed, with the muzzle of a hunting rifle peering out through the open window.
All the guys are Siberians. The commander and Pridokha are from Irkutsk, the Fifth is from Altai. Felix is senior by position, but younger by age, he's 24. Married, two children. Since the age of 17 he has worked as a cook. So, probably, he would have stayed to work in the kitchens of restaurants, if first his father-in-law had not been mobilized, and then his older brother had not died in Donbass... He volunteered. He's been fighting for exactly one year. For a long time he served as a signalman. When the need arose, he retrained as a radio scout.
The radio reconnaissance team - Prowler and Felix - are in position with the UAV operators
The closer we get to the position, the less we talk in the cabin. All three of us are visibly nervous, looking at the sky, every trip is a roulette wheel: will come - will not come. We brake among untidy sunflower fields, camouflage the car and hurry to the landing strip - they are waiting for us there. As a shelter - a dugout, in it is based one of the best, as Felix says, UAV operators in "Akhmat" - Nikita Zhuravl. That's where the radio reconnaissance team came to see him.
Everything for the attackers
Nikita Zhuravl is sitting underground surrounded by wires and batteries, with an LCD screen in his feet, an old-fashioned remote control in his hands, and FPV goggles on his eyes - he has just lifted a kamikaze into the air and is leading it toward the AFU stronghold. Nearby are other fighters of the unit, as well as two guys who came from the Belgorod direction to train with him - 25-year-old Abrek and 20-year-old Groza from Chechnya, both listening attentively to what he says and watching how Nikita acts, recording video.
- We are also UAV operators, but there are really only a few like him," they nod at Crane.
- The height is 30 meters, there is no need to go higher, the route is familiar to me, - Nikita comments energetically from under his glasses. - I'm carrying a thermobaric shell weighing 3 kg, it's heavy. Yesterday I hit a machine-gun point with a two-kilogram shell. Our guys will soon go to break this line, we must do everything possible to facilitate this task. In fact, we all end up working for the stormtroopers.
A copter that will act as a carrier back and forth of special radio equipment
The kamikaze slams into the log structure with a swing, and there's static on the screen.
- Target engaged," the operator summarizes.
While Felix, Fifth and Sneaky are setting up the equipment they brought, Crane tells us about himself:
- I myself am from Nizhny Novgorod, 22 years old recently. I'm a correspondence student at a technical university. I'm in my eighth month in the SWO zone. Schedule: two weeks on positions, a week on vacation. On normal days I make 7-8 sorties. If our "surge" starts, I make no less than 15. Over the last month I hit an APC, a BMP, several Cossack armored vehicles, an American M113 armored personnel carrier, a Baba Yaga hexacopter. Five days ago, a T-64 tank was hit by three drones. The first strike destroyed the REB on the armor, the second destroyed the caterpillar so it wouldn't get away. The third, a shaped charge, burned through the engine. The tank completely burned up. Took about 30 minutes.
Through the thorns
The equipment is ready. We're good to go. A reconnaissance device is attached to the Crane's drone from above - it will record and record radio signals over the enemy's territory. For reliability, the guys clutch together two batteries - there should be no force majeure, the device must return back. Crane and Felix go down to the dugout, they will control the responsible flight together.
- We've taken off! - again drowns in the glasses Nikita, on the LCD screen there is a picture with spinning propellers on the sides. - Speed - 50-60. Altitude, 40 meters. We're passing our position.
- Is it heavy? - Felix asks.
- It's fine.
Nikita Zhuravl, a successful drone operator, before a UAV launch
And immediately a force majeure follows - the screen is crossed by streaks, the image disappears.
- The allies' REB (allied units) muted it," explains Zhuravl. - No big deal. Now we'll break out... Let's go higher.
The picture stabilizes, the drone moves on.
- That's why the pilot's skill is so important, - says Felix, staring intensely at the monitor.
Reaching enemy positions. One of the border villages of Kursk region, captured by the AFU, stretches under the UAV - highways, intersections, streets, houses, yards. The copter hovers over the desired square, scanning and recording on an internal carrier all the necessary information that the scouts will be able to read on the computer after its return.
- Well, let's go back," Felix exhales.
The drone turns around. But on the way back the picture goes out again, and then suddenly a completely different landscape appears on the monitor.
- Easy, brothers! - The Crane moves the levers on the remote control like he's playing the piano. - We've met an allied drone, we're on the same channel. It happens, signal failure, they see our picture and we see theirs. That's okay. The important thing now is not to fall down!
Live monitoring of a radio reconnaissance flight
The settings are being restored.
- Everything is normal, - the experienced operator equalizes the roll due to the resulting "blindness". - We made it! In a few minutes we'll meet you.
Felix goes upstairs. And returns to the dugout with the equipment taken from the returned drone, which made such an important raid. The delivered information is studied. The result: REB is hiding in one of the buildings, the address is received, the accuracy of coordinates - to a meter. The information is transmitted to the commander. Mission accomplished. Guys laying equipment. Next according to the plan - transfer to a new point and work on the ground, searching for the next object.
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