Russia Says It's Building Hibernating Drones That Can Sleep for Weeks Before Attacking
A new Russian drone could hibernate for long periods before assaulting targets.
The Joker FPV loitering munitions sleeps to hide from electronic countermeasures, according to a Google translation of a report by the government-affiliated TASS news agency. The drone is being produced to aid in the war against Ukraine, which is increasingly seeing the use of uncrewed aircraft.
“A tool for hibernating FPV drones of the Joker line and its top model, Ultimatum, was developed and implemented at the Central Design Bureau,” Dmitry Kuzyakin, the director general of Russia’s Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told TASS. “A drone with a hibernator can take up a position for an attack and literally go into hibernation for several weeks. On the air, a sleeping drone does not manifest itself and attack.”
The Joker was designed to be placed on tall structures such as building rooftops to wait for the right moment to attack, Kuzyakin said. As the drone is pre-positioned close to the battlefield, the time it takes to hit its target is reduced to just a few seconds. The drone is also less affected by various countermeasures.
“One FPV pilot can place and then wake up and sequentially use up to 15 sleeping drones,” Kuzyakin added.
The new Joker drone is part of a growing trend toward drones on the battlefield. The skies over Ukraine are buzzing with uncrewed aircraft, and both sides rely on inexpensive commercial drones to spot targets on the battlefield.
Russia has unleashed swarms of Shahed-136 drones—an Iranian-made loitering munition—and a recent attack by the craft was defeated by Ukranian air defenses. Russia has been buying the Shaheds from Iran, as it is having difficulty producing its munitions itself due to Western sanctions.
Russia has also sent Orlan-10 drones to spy on and jam Ukrainian communications. The Orlan is made by a company in Saint Petersburg for the Russian military, and has a sleek body that makes it hard to spot. It can take off and land with a catapult and a parachute.
Ukraine has fought back with Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that can accurately blast Russian tanks and troops. It also uses U.S.-supplied Switchblade 300 drones, which are small enough to fit in a backpack.
Ukraine has been using drones to strike deep into Russian territory. Two Ukrainian drones recently hit two non-residential buildings in Moscow.
The drones were “suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. “On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted.”
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