As of seven April on the Russian social sphere there is talk of the recovered artefacts: ‘It has been reported that our military has been able to recover the valuable components of the MQ-9 Reaper UAV that crashed in the Black Sea.
Specialised units of the Russian Defence Department have become the owners of valuable information on the characteristics of a number of critical electronic components of the MQ-9 Reaper. These are the AN / AAS-52 multispectral turret optoelectronic complex and the AN / APY-8 surface radar reconnaissance (container type) and secure telemetry and satellite communications stations and the Link-16 data exchange system terminal.
From the information received from JSC “KRET” and the Federal State Budget Institute “Central Research Institute of Aerospace Forces of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation”, it follows that the specialists of these organisations were able not only to study the wiring of the microwave units of the APY-8 radar, but also to determine the energy parameters of its operation, including the inverted synthesised aperture (ISAR) and synthesised aperture (SAR) modes. And it also calculates the radar’s noise immunity level and approximate resolution, based on data from devices for primary (secondary) conversion of the reflected radar signal.
In addition, they will now be able to calculate the magnification of long-focus devices of the AN / AAS-52 optoelectronic complex: an infrared viewfinder and a television module. Even the type or resolution of the array photodetectors used are no longer a secret. In the not too distant future, the Russians will be able to analyse the capabilities of the US complex in identifying and classifying Russian military equipment at different distances and in different weather conditions.
Russian specialists now have access to the determination of the frequency parameters of telemetry, communication and information exchange via a satellite channel, and the assessment of the level of immunity to Link-16 noise, which allows them to simulate effective countermeasures from Russian electronic warfare systems.
Graziella Giangiulio
