“The drone planted by the Stupor was finished off with butts”: designer Dmitry Klochko on the use of anti-drones in the Donbass

— Dmitry Vasilyevich, when and why did you start working on drone protection?

- Pretty random.

I am a military engineer by education, a graduate of the Zhukovsky Academy (Air Force Engineering Academy named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky. -

).

Having retired as a major, he worked in a number of scientific and technical organizations.

In 2015, I was approached privately with an unusual offer: to help one very rich man defend himself against another equally rich man.

They quarreled, and one, with the help of a drone, began to “bombard” the estate of the other with all sorts of rubbish.

These were neighborly squabbles, but the technical problem itself seemed interesting to me in terms of engineering.

I began to study the issue, think, experiment.

Thus was born my first anti-drone with impact channels at household frequencies of 2.4 and 5.8 GHz up to a range of 300 m. It became the first in Russia.

- It's funny.

“If only you knew from what rubbish poetry grows, knowing no shame ...” Did your development help solve the everyday problem of neighbors?

- Yes.

The drone was landed, the "raids" stopped.

Word of mouth went off in the cottage villages, and I began to receive orders for the manufacture of such anti-drones.

In 2016, I opened my own small company to design and manufacture them.

My colleagues and I made specialized electromagnetic guns "Stupor" to protect cottages, yachts, categorized objects.

- What is the principle of operation of such guns?

- Devices do not shoot or shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles.

The task of the anti-drone is to intercept the control of the UAV.

The device loses communication with the operator's console: the anti-drone suppression unit muffles the signals of satellite navigation systems.

I "taught" my complex not to drop the devices on the ground, but to carefully plant them in the place indicated by the "Stupor" operator.

- The military and special services were not interested in your product?

- We initially went into a purely civil sphere, so as not to fall under the influence of our laws, which are not always thought out in the field of new technologies.

Our legislation is floating in high technologies, especially where they are potentially dual-use.

They didn’t even call the products anti-drones.

We have them PARS - devices for activating the rescue mode.

On the other hand, I did not want to get under the rink of absorption or suffocation by the "big uncles" of the industry.

They also began to deal with anti-drone topics, but for some reason so far their developments have not gone into a series.

People in uniform had an interest in our products, but for the most part “purely sporty”.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs took and used our developments for the protection of mass events.

But this was decided at the level of personal contacts - I, as a technical specialist attracted from the outside, teach at the advanced training center for employees of this department near Moscow.

The police also used our PARS at the facilities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The military tested an electromagnetic gun in Syria.

Reviews in private were good, but the case was not developed.

- How did your PARS get to a special military operation in Ukraine?

We ourselves offered.

My classmates and colleagues in the armed forces said that the enemy is actively using drones.

I suggested trying our anti-drone to counteract.

Through volunteers, he sent a party of ten PARSs to Alexander Khodakovsky in the Vostok battalion of the Donetsk People's Republic.

But to him the only gun hit the last one.

I don’t know how it happened, but the products went to other units along the way.

Everywhere, as far as I know, came in handy.

They call me, write, praise and ask for more.

- Are there any reviews from the command?

Of course.

I even received an official letter from a high-ranking military leader with a request to send another batch of anti-drones.

We made and shipped.

Did you get rich in the war?

- Not.

For the most part, we give away PARS made at our own expense.

Now part of the anti-drones is paid for by sponsors, whom we usually look for and find ourselves.

After the appearance of information about the successful use of "Stupor" in the combat zone, I think there should be more patriotic philanthropists.

- Have you yourself tried "Stupor" in action?

- A few days ago I returned from the zone of contact with the enemy.

I will say diplomatically: they got the guys on the front line of drone raids.

Some of our units clearly know that foreign drones will arrive to drop ammunition on schedule.

In the morning, a team of enemy UAV operators will appear on the other side, and they will bomb ours from such and such to such and such a time.

And in the evening, the same group of “drone pilots” will move to another position and begin to deliver air trouble to neighbors along the front.

In front of my eyes, with the Stupor I brought, the fighters landed a Ukrainian drone, on the ground, without restraining their emotions, finished it off with rifle butts and rejoiced, as if they had knocked an American satellite out of orbit!

It's good that they were stopped in time.

The flash drive recovered from the drone turned out to be very valuable.

It was a detailed cartographic survey of the area from 21 to 30 June.

Wherever the drone flew, it filmed there - both our positions and those of the enemy.

Something in our headquarters and the gunners had happiness!

— Do you have any new developments?

— Yes, several.

Among them are devices for installation on cars and armored vehicles, an anti-drone pistol.

— What do you think, after the media coverage of the work of your Stupor in the special military operation zone, will the serial production of this product and those new products that you have just announced begin?

-Don't know.

The answer to this question, as the military says, is "higher than my trench."

Today, on our own, with funding from sponsors, our company - eight employees, including me - is capable of manufacturing up to a hundred "Stupors" per month.

The need for anti-drones at the front is many thousands.

Ideally, with an increase in the number of UAVs from the enemy, and this is happening, such an electromagnetic device should be in every motorized rifle and airborne platoon, in every combat crew of artillery and air defense systems.