Weekly Wrap: Ukraine’s drone attack and its implications for electronic warfare

The operation, dubbed “Spider’s Web”, targeted four air bases and delivered a major blow to Moscow’s long-range bomber fleet. Using an undercover truck carrying around 150 small strike drones, modular launch systems and 300 explosive payloads were smuggled into Russia through covert logistical routes.

The proliferation of cheap, affordable technologies, both in hardware and software, is accelerating

The trucks were parked in the vicinity of the airbases. At the designated time, the roofs of the cabins were remotely opened, and the drones launched directly from within the trucks. According to the reports, 40 aircraft were destroyed, amounting to what Ukrainian sources estimate as 34 per cent of Russia’s strategic cruise missile delivery platforms.

A Russian source on Telegram said that the drones’ First Person Vision (FPV) control was carried out through Russian mobile public 4G or LTE networks. “The FPV drone was controlled via the Ardupilot (opensourced) software. Absolutely the same solution on the ‘Baba Yogas’ (Russian nickname for a number of Ukrainian heavy bomber drones), only instead of the Starlink terminal, there is an LTE modem with an Ethernet output, to which a single-board PC is connected. A webcam is correspondingly connected to the PC, from which the image is transmitted, and a UART channel is diverted to the Ardupilot to send commands to control the drone.”

The Centre of Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, drew some lessons from this operation. “It’s a turning point in how low-cost, improvised unmanned systems can be employed with strategic impact deep behind enemy lines,” the organisation said.

The drones that were used in this operation are priced between $800 and $1,000 and are quite similar to commercially available models.

“The proliferation of cheap, affordable technologies, both in hardware and software, is accelerating,” the CSIS said. “Cheap off-the-shelf FPV drones, open-source software platforms, and AI models, once designed for hobbyists, are now weaponised with devastating results. The accessibility and adaptability of such systems make them an attractive tool for state and non-state actors alike, demanding urgent efforts to anticipate, regulate, and counter their militarised use in both conflict zones and domestic settings.”

Last month, I reported on NATO’s efforts to harmonise an approach to electronic warfare and the ongoing discussions on military 5G private networks, harmonised spectrum bands and more standards. There’s a stark contrast between those discussions and the simplicity of this operation of using the tools that already exist: open-source software, standard webcams, the public 4G network and cheap drones.

Here’s what else we wrote about this week:

• India issued a draft on its 6 GHz plans to open up the lower part of the band for WiFi, while an upcoming decision on IMT is expected.
• The FCC agreed at its 22 May meeting to “kickstart” a proceeding that could make more than 20,000 MHz of spectrum available for high-speed internet delivered from space. 
• Ukraine has freed 700 MHz spectrum along the Polish border to reduce 4G/5G interference, following RSPG-brokered negotiations.
• The ITUThe International Telecommunication U… has approved the timeline for the satellite component of the IMT-2030International Mobile Telecommunications (I… standard, although its progress is lagging behind that of its terrestrial counterpart.
• The resignation of two Federal Communications Commissioners, leaving the regulator without a quorum, isn’t likely to have a major impact on its work, according to a US telecoms lawyer.