- Ukraine is upgrading its Vampire bomber drones to better resist Russian jamming
- Now the hovering drones can even attack the jammers themselves
- Resistance to electronic warfare helps the night-flying Vampires fly deeper into Russian-controlled territory to drop grenades and deliver supplies
Ukrainian drone-maker Skyfall has upgraded its iconic Vampire bomber drone to resist Russian electronic warfare. Now the six-rotor drone can not only fly through Russian jamming. It can also attack the jammers themselves.
That matters now because the jammers are some of the last things standing between Ukraine's drones and the Russian air defenses they hunt. Ukrainian forces have destroyed more Russian air defense systems this spring than at any point in the war—81 confirmed since 1 March, by the General Staff's count, with April running roughly double the previous autumn's pace. A drone that shrugs off jamming can go after the jammers that were protecting everything else. Kill the jammer, and the next target gets easier.
Following the upgrades, a Vampire recently found and bombed a rare Russian Borisoglebsk-2 tracked jamming vehicle, likely destroying it with several grenades that punched right through the Borisoglebsk-2's thin top armor.
A complete Borisoglebsk-2 complex is estimated to cost as much as $200 million. Russia has built only a few dozen of them since 2015, and Ukrainian forces have knocked out at least six since 2023. "I think this is the most painful operation carried out against the Russians in a single instance," a Skyfall spokesperson said, somewhat exaggerating.
Ukraine wrapped the occupied south in three layers of drones. Russian trucks are burning
More strikes on rare and expensive Russian jammers could be coming, now that the Vampires are resistant to the effects of their electronic noise broadcasts. Blowing up more Russian jammers would hasten the wider collapse of Russian air defenses resulting from Ukraine's intensive campaign of drone strikes that began around a year ago.
The standard Vampire is a heavy hexacopter with a payload of around 15 kg and a thermal camera that allows it to operate at night. Also known as "Baba Yagas" by the Russians, a reference to a mythical night witch, the Vampires have been hounding Russian forces since the first year of Russia's wider war on Ukraine.
With their payload of multiple grenades and enough endurance to patiently hunt Russian troops for hours at a time, the Vampires are among the most efficient killers over the disputed gray zone. With better batteries and satellite communications, they've been able to range 45 km to bombard troops before they even reach the gray zone.
Vulnerable to jamming
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But the oldest Vampires are vulnerable to Russian jamming. These Vampires are directly controlled by human pilots who connect to their drones via line-of-sight radio. It's a fairly simple matter to interrupt that radio signal with radio noise.
To mitigate the effects of this jamming, Skyfall has added redundant navigation and communication systems to the latest Vampires. The firm replaced the old radio receiver with a Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna that has multiple receivers. It's not impossible to jam all of the receivers, but it's hard.
And in the event the Russians do fully jam the CRPA, cutting off a Vampire from its distant human operator, the drone can switch to a self-contained terrain-matching navigation system that scans the landscape passing beneath it and matches it to a pre-loaded flight path. Terrain-matching navigation might not be as precise as direct human control, but it's jam-proof.
Now the new Vampire "is completely resistant to Russian electronic warfare," the Skyfall spokesperson said, again exaggerating somewhat.
Resistance to jamming doesn't just help a Vampire bomb Russian jammers, it also safeguards the drone during other mission profiles. As the spokesperson noted, Vampires aren't solely bombers anymore. They also drop mines along Russian assault lanes and, increasingly, fly supply missions where they drop food, water, ammunition, batteries and medical supplies on Ukrainian positions instead of dropping live grenades on Russian positions.
As a supply drone, the Vampire keeps human logisticians off the dangerous roads and "helps ensure greater safety for personnel." It's not alone, of course. More unmanned ground vehicles are also plying Ukraine's riskiest supply routes.
