A top-secret Russian unit based mostly in Moscow has modified the panorama of drone warfare, turning what was a bonus for the Ukrainians right into a vulnerability.
The unit is named Rubicon and has expanded quickly underneath Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov since his appointment in June final 12 months. Belousov visited its headquarters in October 2024 and was proven a variety of drones being developed, in line with video revealed by official Russian media.
The introduction of Rubicon – full title the Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies – is a first-rate instance of how the Russian navy has learnt to shrug off its inflexible manner of warfare throughout the Ukraine battle and adapt to a quickly evolving battlefield.
Ukraine had already established a separate department inside its navy – the Unmanned Systems Forces – in mid-2024.
As Rubicon proved its price, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in June that Russia would set up a navy command devoted to “unmanned aerial systems.”
That unit got here into being final week.
“The head of unmanned systems has been appointed, and military command and control bodies have been created at all levels,” stated its deputy commander, Col. Sergei Ishtuganov.
“Just a year ago, our troops weren’t so saturated with drones of all types. But gradually, Russian units managed to turn the tide in the skies,” he advised Russian each day kp.ru.
“We are assigning operators, engineers, technicians and other support specialists to these units,” Ishtuganov added, a transparent signal of the sources being devoted to the command.
It even has its personal emblem – that includes a crossed arrow and sword, with a microchip bearing a star and wings within the middle.
Rubicon is not only about designing and deploying drones. It develops and checks superior robotic techniques and AI.
It pioneered the usage of fiber-optic drones, which have had a major affect on the battlefield. These are managed through a fiber-optic cable, offering a safe video feed in actual time and can’t be jammed.
It additionally improves the efficiency of different models.
“Rubicon formations remain a leading problem for [(Ukrainian)] drone operators, not only the drone companies themselves, but because they train other Russian drone units,” notes Michael Kofman, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Endowment.
Within months of Rubicon’s institution, its models have been fanning out throughout the entrance strains with a brand new technology of drones, turning the tables on Ukrainian forces.
Their first recognized involvement was inside Russia, after Ukrainian forces entered and took part of the Kursk area final summer season. Shortly after Rubicon’s look within the space, the Ukrainian navy reported that their provide strains had been virtually fully minimize off by drone assaults.
Ukrainian forces withdrew from the realm early this 12 months. Later, two commanders advised NCS {that a} well-trained Russian unit had abruptly modified the battle, looking Ukrainian logistics and drone operators. At the time, that they had no thought Rubicon had been deployed.
Since then, Rubicon models have been reported in lots of components of the battlefield, typically giving Russian troops a bonus by attacking Ukrainian provide routes effectively behind the entrance strains – in addition to enemy drone operators.
In August, the commander of Ukraine’s 93rd Brigade battalion told NCS that Rubicon models had been built-in with Russian brigades within the Kostiantynivka space of Donetsk.
Within every week, he stated, his unit had misplaced most of its automobiles, drone launch websites, antennas, and communications tools. From the start of the battle, the Russians have tried to target Ukrainian drone operators. Rubicon models have taken that to a brand new stage.
The battle is now “a saturated drone operating environment,” in line with navy analyst Mick Ryan, who was just lately in Ukraine.
Ryan stated frontline officers had advised him that Russian innovation in drones most likely now simply outstrips that of Ukraine.
“Within 15 kilometers (9 miles) of the front line, vehicle movement is difficult to impossible. Infantry soldiers must march to their positions for 10-15 kilometers (6-9 miles),” Ryan stated.
“Where armoured vehicles and artillery are deployed, these can be subject to dozens of attacks per platform per day. Every HQ is now buried deep underground to avoid detection and destruction by Russian drones,” in line with Ryan, creator of the weblog Futura Doctrina.
“Today it is drone pilots who are the architects of victory, shaping the modern battlefield. They are the ones who, to a large extent, ensure the advance of… infantry,” wrote the Russian Telegram channel Lost Armor, posting an almost five-minute video of Ukrainian armor that had been destroyed within the Pokrovsk space.
Ukrainian forces have erected nets on roads and tracks behind the entrance strains to ensnare Rubicon’s drones, however they’re of restricted assist given the sprawling fight zone.
Rubicon has additionally been modern in creating radar networks to carry down Ukrainian drones.
“They captured ALL TYPES of our main UAVs as trophies,” says Ukrainian digital warfare specialist Serhiy Beskrestnov. “Of course, they studied all the electronics, communication systems inside our UAVs, and navigation systems.”
Rubicon additionally seems to have been concerned within the first profitable use of a Russian naval drone, which struck a Ukrainian vessel within the Danube estuary in August.
Two weeks in the past, Rubicon claimed to have taken out a Ukrainian naval vessel mooring at a fuel manufacturing facility within the Black Sea.
So vital are Rubicon models that the Ukrainian safety providers at the moment are intensively seeking out their ahead bases. A drone strike on a Russian base in occupied Avdiivka destroyed a Rubicon headquarters earlier this month, in line with Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.
One Ukrainian drone unit hooked up to the 71st Jaeger brigade just lately posted video displaying strikes on antennas and hide-outs in Sumy that it stated belonged to “the elite Russian Rubicon unit.”
“We detect, search for antennas, satellite communication terminals, dugouts, and strike them,” stated Vyacheslav, the unit’s commander. They had detected take-off factors and intercepted radio communications to determine the presence of a Rubicon unit, he stated.
While the 2 sides have comparable capabilities, the Russians had a bonus within the variety of fiber-optic drones they have been producing, Vyacheslav advised NCS.
“The availability of these drones, how many they can launch, how many we can launch. That’s the key difference.” And there have been extra Rubicon operators now, he stated.
The battle in Ukraine has more and more grow to be considered one of counter-measures, designed to leap-frog or neutralize an innovation by the enemy. It’s a continuing battle between drones and digital warfare that may detect, jam or spoof enemy drones.
“The enemy plays with frequencies; we reconfigure our electronic warfare systems. The enemy begins to suppress us with electronic warfare; we switch to other frequencies,” in line with the Russian commander, Ishtuganov.
Adaptation is endless.
In Rubicon’s arsenal is the Molniya drone, a comparatively easy UAV largely fabricated from plywood. The second technology of the Molniya (lightning in Russian) carries a payload of as much as 7 kilograms (15 kilos) and might fly greater than 30 kilometers (19 miles) deep behind the entrance strains. It can even act as a “mothership” that launches two first-person view (FPV) munitions – and, as NCS found in August, has made journey alongside vital routes a lot tougher.
As quickly because the Ukrainians captured a Molniya, they started copying – and bettering – the design. They have additionally developed a brand new drone – the FP-2 – that may strike Rubicon command facilities at the least 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the entrance line.
In the early days of the battle, Russian forces have been incessantly derided within the West for his or her inflexible techniques, poor tools and mediocre management. That has modified.
In a significant departure, the Russian navy has begun embracing start-up producers such because the Oko Design Bureau in St. Petersburg, which makes two forms of drones now extensively utilized in fight. Oko has been sanctioned by the United States.
The Russian navy’s embrace of innovation makes Russia “a more dangerous adversary for Ukraine, as well as a much more capable and dangerous military to threaten Europe,” in line with a brand new evaluation by the Special Competitive Studies Project, a US think-tank.
The world envisioned by Rubicon and its backers “will soon have swarms of autonomous drones that can overwhelm adversaries’ defenses, microdrones that are difficult to identify or stop, and drones that mimic birds, bugs, or other wildlife,” stated navy analyst Dara Massicot.
Drone warfare – and anti-drone digital warfare – is evolving at an virtually weekly tempo as the value of survival.
“Experts are fond of saying that armies shape war. But war shapes armies, as well,” Massicot stated.
In the forests of Sumy in northern Ukraine, that interprets to what Vyacheslav, the commander of the drone unit, as an limitless routine.
“It’s systematic work: detection, destruction, detection, destruction.”