YePPO [E-AirDefense], a Ukrainian app for crowdsourcing Russian cruise missile trajectories, has helped down the first missile, one of its developers Hennadiy Duldin told on Facebook.
The app allows users to submit their sightings of Russian missiles and drones, which escape being spotted by radars by flying at low altitudes.
Duldin said that the app helped Ukraine’s air defense spot a Kalibr cruise missile that was flying at a low altitude and avoided being spotted by using peculiarities of the terrain. However, it was spotted by Ukrainian users of the app, after which the data was submitted to air defense and the Kalibr was shot down with Igla MANPADS.
“The system worked exactly as we dreamed in May when we started developing the app. The way, the air defense system was conceived as a means of tracking low-flying subsonic cruise missiles, primarily of the Kalibr type. The threat from Shahed [drones] appeared much later,” Shuldin said.
He noted that missile and drone spottings from the countryside that the app allows providing are of great value to Ukraine’s air defense, as the Russian weapons most often are sent on their destructive missions along lowlands in sparsely populated areas.
In October, Ukraine has seen a sharp spike in drone and missile attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine under Russian missile attack: Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure (updates)
