Russia has likely turned a helicopter into a flying drone-jammer. Moscow has built a new complex on an Mi-8 helicopter, likely intended to counter drones, according to Militarnyi. The whole assessment of what it does and how is Militarnyi's analysis of photographs, not a confirmed Russian capability.
According to Militarnyi, the helicopter carries several panel antennas mounted at different angles to cover a 180-degree sector, with a likely mirror set on the other side of the aircraft for full coverage.
Each panel has only two cables running to it, which the reviewers suggest means the system operates in two channels simultaneously.
Militarnyi thinks it jams navigation, not control
The reviewers' central argument is about what the complex is not. It is unlikely to be aimed at radio-controlled drones near the front line, Militarnyi says, because it can only cover too narrow a band of frequencies for that.
Instead, their version is that it suppresses the satellite navigation of Ukraine's long-range strike drones, which fly on fixed frequencies.
If the navigation-jamming theory is right, each of the two cables might handle a separate antenna polarization, allowing the system to radiate interference in different polarizations and depend less on how a drone's navigation antenna is oriented in flight.
The cables might alternatively be split by frequency — one covering the L1 band (1.5 to 1.6 GHz), the other L2 or L5 (around 1.2 GHz) — so each panel could jam both main signals that multi-band drone receivers rely on.
Why a flying jammer, and why it might work
The one part of Militarnyi's reasoning that rests on a general principle rather than photo-reading concerns why Russia would put this in the air at all.
Long-range strike drones usually carry an inertial navigation system alongside their satellite receiver, Militarnyi notes.
But an inertial system is built to correct for drift only while a drone crosses a relatively small jamming zone, because the inertial unit accumulates its own error over time.
A jammer that can move — loitering in a helicopter along a drone's expected path — could hold a drone inside a suppression zone for longer than a fixed ground station could, forcing the inertial system to coast further and drift more.
On that logic, Militarnyi suggests Russia probably plans to use these helicopters much like the light-aircraft electronic-warfare platforms it already flies.
