The Russian Drones That Are changing the World

The Russian Drones
The Russian Drones

The United States and its allies will continue to fight Islamic State militants in Syria, but that won’t be enough. Russian President Vladimir Putin is bringing his early digital influence to bear on the world stage. The Russian Drones That Are changing the World

Russia Launches Drones to Track Terrorists

In the wake of 9/11, the United States and its allies have been busy fighting a new, more sophisticated version of the same terror group. It’s called the Islamic State (Isis). It’s a branch of how the Assad regime has been fighting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). The U.S., British, and French airstrikes have been key in helping to help contain the Pandora’s box of increasing Islamic State capabilities. But now it’s the Russians who are stepping in.

Russia Launches Drones to Monitor Earth from Space

The Russian Airborne Warning and Control System (ARWDS) has done a lot of monitoring of Earth’s weather and geomagnetic fields, but it’s now looking at things from space. In fact, the system’s primary function is to help detect and track threats to human life. It’s only a matter of time before the same system is applied to the environment. You can see how that’s possible in the video below:

How Shocking is the Russian Drone Attack on NYU?

This incident in New York City might shock you. It involves a small aircraft that was legally allowed to fly in the city and has not been detected by the system in almost a decade. Just weeks before the incident, the city of New York—the first to be targeted by the Russian drone—adopted new regulations specifically prohibiting the use of remotely piloted aircraft in the city. Those rules took effect in November 2016, and the Moscow-based company that runs the commercial drone service that owns that plane has been ordered to turn over all stolen materials and assets. The company has been ordered to pay a total of $3 million.

The Rise of the Remotely-Operated aerial Weapons

Robotics, also known as “bots,” have been around since the 1980s. But they have only become a major real-world threat with the advent of remotely piloted aircraft. In the early 2000s, the US Air Force considered sending a swarm of robots into Northern Europe to hunt down and exterminate then-current and former Soviet Air Force and Navy flying robots. But after a few pilotless machines proved to be too costly and ineffectual, the idea was abandoned. Since then, the trend has been for remote-operated aircraft to be more focused on attacking friendly civilian aviation. That’s why you’ll see the normal frequency of U.S. air shows featuring the Air Force X-15 and Black Hawk helicopters being taken up by the single-engine X-36 FlyingMachine. It’s also why UAVs have become so common. It’s the combination of these new technologies and the expertise of companies like Waza and Spartan that has allowed the Russian Airborne Warning and Control System to gain such a foothold in the skies over the U.S. in the first place.

From UAVs and Reaper Clients to UAV Operators

The same can be said about U.S. partners like Britain’s Britain-based Reaper Robotics and French company Safer Aerial Technologies. Both companies were the first to market with UAVs in the early 2000s. They later created the Desert Eagle UAV, which was later repositioned as the Predator. The Predator became a kind of mascot for U.S. researchers working to develop a way to deliveraseconds of precision (SEPS) to the target location. That capability is what made the UAVs so successful in the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan.

A New Strategy in Syria: The Russian Airborne Warning And Control System

The days of reliance on ground-based intelligence (GBI) to make a substantial impact seem to be over. That all changed in early 2016 with Russia’s first ever “Decentralized All-Source” (DAS) initiative. The concept was simple: rather than relying on big data or out-of-state companies to monitor weather and other conditions, U.S. government employees and contractors could monitor the system from a distance. The idea was to communicate with the system using a smartphone app, which would then communicate with the service from a remote supervision. Within months, the initiative had almost 30,000 users and was soonipples around the world. A number of DAS programs around the world were soon replaced by more attractive options that more closely tracked the U.S. signals. That included the Global Positioning System (GPS), which was replaced by an improved version of the same system, the Global Connectedness System (GCS), and the Digital Airspace System (DAS). All three systems are now considered critical-level systems, meaning they’re ready to be deployed on a large scale.

Operational Thoughts and Best Practices for the Future

From the rocky start to its present standing as a global security force, the United States has indeed seen great strides forward in terms of international security. In fact, the American presence in the Middle East and North Africa has grown more than even the combined might of the Soviet Union and the United States put together. The only thing missing from that list is a foothold in the ever-expanding skies above the United States. To gain a foothold in the skies above the United States and prevent future attacks, the Russian Airborne Warning and Control System (ARWDS) must adopt a new strategy. The old adage “You are where you are” doesn’t apply in the skies above the United States, which is where the detection and response capabilities of the system are most needed. The same can be said about the American military presence in the Middle East and Africa, which requires a different kind of response. To be clear, no one is claiming that the current approach to international security is “good” or “bad”—only that it needs re-examining. The old adage “no good enough to deserve a seat in the sky” should apply here as well.