You Can't Cover a Rat with NRC Foil: How Russian Drones Track Attack Targets
- A key factor for success in armed conflict is the ability to effectively adapt and utilize available resources.
- Ukraine is succeeding in developing drone technology by combining the resources of civilian and military universities.
- Drones identify targets mainly using thermal imaging technology, and inadequate security of medical infrastructure, such as tents, makes them an easy target
- They can be masked using NRC thermal insulation foil, but this method can be bypassed
- Drone fire is directed at the presence of rats that are present in large, long-term military habitats, especially where there are wounded
Drones are changing the face of war. They can be used for reconnaissance and precise attacks on the enemy, and they can also be used to rescue soldiers. This is demonstrated by the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia, where these devices are being used by both sides.
Lieutenant General Professor Grzegorz Gierelak, director of the Military Medical Institute, noted that the incredible progress in their development in Ukraine stems from the skillful use of the country's resources: "In reality, success is determined by the ability to adapt the resources at one's disposal. Therefore, the faster a country can adapt to a changing situation, that is, effectively utilize all the resources at its disposal and combine them into one whole, the greater its success will be."
"In Ukraine, the development of drones has combined the resources of civilian and military universities and the military health service. Their programming, use, and development are handled not by the military, but by civilian technical universities," he emphasized.
Such a skill may determine the success of a given country in an armed conflict.
At what stage of preparation for drone warfare is the Polish military medical service?
- None of our battalion medical support points, whether at the regimental or brigade level, not to mention the division, has adequate protection against thermal imaging, electronic reconnaissance or precision strikes - assessed Dr. Jacek Siewiera, former Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, head of the National Security Bureau in 2022-2025.
Drone troops identify a target, usually using thermal imaging methods, and direct drone fire at it.
What transpires? Well-prepared, but inadequately secured, medical tents were showcased at the International Defense Industry Exhibition (MSPO) in Kielce.
"It turned out that none of these tents had any thermal camouflage method. They simply glowed in thermal imaging because they weren't protected like command posts or infantry positions," said Minister Siewiera.
This means that in a combat zone they are easy targets for precision-guided drones.
It is true that the camouflage used by infantry using NRC foil for thermal insulation can provide protection, but only to a certain extent, because the enemy can bypass it.
- Drone fire is directed at the presence of rats, because you can't cover a rat with NRC foil, they are everywhere, especially in large, long-term military habitats, especially in places where there are wounded - explained the expert.
Such an attack on infrastructure has a profound psychological impact. Primarily, it directly injures dozens or even dozens of people, already in immediate danger of death. The victims include medical personnel. Furthermore, it renders the specialized infrastructure of the medical facility inoperable.
Research projects are underway in Poland. One of them is being developed by experts from the Combat Medicine and Medical Simulation Department of the Military Institute of Medicine.
The project assumes the use of high-fidelity simulations in controlled, safe conditions to verify whether a series of drones is correctly monitoring the vital signs of casualties on the battlefield.
In the past, one of the projects recognized by the Ministry of National Defense was a conceptual, experimental multi-role drone codenamed "Legion." The drone can operate in either "swarm" mode or independently. Depending on the selected warhead, the drone performs tasks such as reconnaissance, terrain mapping, combat, or causing chaos and drawing fire.
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The statements were recorded, among others, during the Battlefield Medicine panel at the XXXIII Economic Forum in Karpacz.
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