Integrated Sensing and Communication Meets Smart Propagation Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

[2402.18683] Integrated Sensing and Communication Meets Smart Propagation Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

arxiv.org

[Submitted on 28 Feb 2024]

---

Download PDF HTML (experimental)

Abstract:Both smart propagation engineering as well as integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) constitute promising candidates for next-generation (NG) mobile networks. We provide a synergistic view of these technologies, and explore their mutual benefits.

First, moving beyond just intelligent surfaces, we provide a holistic view of the engineering aspects of smart propagation environments. By delving into the fundamental characteristics of intelligent surfaces, fluid antennas, and unmanned aerial vehicles, we reveal that more efficient control of the pathloss and fading can be achieved, thus facilitating intrinsic integration and mutual assistance between sensing and communication functionalities.

In turn, with the exploitation of the sensing capabilities of ISAC to orchestrate the efficient configuration of radio environments, both the computational effort and signaling overheads can be reduced. We present indicative simulation results, which verify that cooperative smart propagation environment design significantly enhances the ISAC performance. Finally, some promising directions are outlined for combining ISAC with smart propagation engineering.

Submission history

From: Kaitao Meng [view email]
[v1] Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:02:35 UTC (874 KB)

Summary

Here is a summary of the key points from the document:

1. The article provides an overview of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) and smart propagation engineering techniques like intelligent surfaces, fluid antennas, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It explores how they can mutually benefit each other.
2. Smart propagation engineering can enhance ISAC by improving channel gains, enabling sensing-assisted communication and communication-assisted sensing, facilitating near-field beamfocusing and curved beams, and enabling cooperative ISAC networks.
3. ISAC can assist smart propagation engineering by enabling cooperative design, reducing control overheads, supporting predictive resource allocation, and providing blockage awareness through sensing.
4. A case study verifies that collaborative smart propagation engineering significantly improves ISAC performance compared to unassisted scenarios. However, higher sensing requirements reduce communication performance. UAV-assisted schemes extend adequate sensing performance while improving communication rates.
5. Open research problems include developing AI solutions for smart environment control, securing ISAC with smart propagation engineering, and enabling vehicular ISAC cooperation.

The document is forward-looking and focuses more on opportunities, challenges, and future research directions when combining these technologies. There is no indication that the authors created prototype systems or platforms to directly validate the integration in practice beyond simulations.

In summary, the document does not refer to any specific artifacts, software tools, prototypes or platforms developed by the authors to experimentally validate the concepts outlined in the paper. It seems to be more of a vision paper rather than reporting on a completed proof-of-concept system.

Authors:

• Kaitao Meng (Member, IEEE)
• Christos Masouros (Fellow, IEEE)
• Kai-Kit Wong (Fellow, IEEE)
• Athina P. Petropulu (Fellow, IEEE)
• Lajos Hanzo (Fellow, IEEE)

Affiliations:

• Kaitao Meng, Christos Masouros, Kai-Kit Wong: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
• Athina P. Petropulu: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
• Lajos Hanzo: University of Southampton

 

arxiv.org

Integrated Sensing and Communication Meets Smart Propagation Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

Kaitao Meng Member, IEEE Christos Masouros Fellow, IEEE Kai-Kit Wong Fellow, IEEE Athina P. Petropulu Fellow, IEEE and Lajos Hanzo Fellow, IEEE K. Meng, C. Masouros, and K. Wong are with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London, UK (emails: {kaitao.meng, c.masouros, kai-kit.wong}@ucl.ac.uk). A. P. Petropulu is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08901 USA (email: athinap@rustlers.edu). Lajos Hanzo is with the University of Southampton. (email: lh@ecs.soton.ac.uk)

Index Terms:

Integrated sensing and communication, smart propagation engineering, intelligent surfaces, fluid antennas.

I Introduction

As a promising candidate technology for next-generation (NG) networks, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) relies on a unified wireless infrastructure and its spectral resources to convey the desired information, while exploiting echo signals for sensing. As such, ISAC seamlessly delivers sensing and communication (S&C) services in a timely, energy-, and spectrally efficient manner [1]. With the advances of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and millimetre wave (mmWave)/terahertz (THz) technologies, ISAC is expected to provide high-throughput, ultra-reliable, and low-latency wireless communications, as well as ultra-precise, high-resolution, and robust wireless sensing [2]. Nevertheless, for conventional communication networks having stationary antennas, fixed base station (BS) topology, and random/uncontrolled channel fading, the performance of S&C may be severely restricted by transmission blockages, excessive connectivity demands, and by the conflicting design objectives of ISAC networks [1, 2].

By utilizing state-of-the-art smart technologies like intelligent surfaces [3], fluid antenna systems (FAS) [4], and holographic MIMO [5], combined with innovative cell-free and mobile air-ground networks [6], the propagation environments can be beneficially managed with increased flexibility and efficiency, resulting in enhanced ISAC performance. Towards this end, in this article, we attempt a step forward from previous studies of intelligent surfaces conceived for propagation control [7], by harnessing a holistic view of the latest channel engineering technologies. We reveal that by taking advantage of these novel antenna techniques and network architectures, mutual assistance between S&C is improved, resulting in sensing-assisted communication and communication-assisted sensing. Furthermore, they also offer new opportunities to design cooperative ISAC networks for signal power enhancement and efficient interference mitigation.

While these smart technologies are capable of significantly enhancing the S&C performance attained, their advantages come at the expense of high latency, overheads, and power consumption imposed by the control operations. The radio environment should be carefully managed according to the dynamic requirements of specific S&C tasks, as excessive adaptation may result in increased signaling overheads and resource consumption. It is therefore necessary to allocate the resources in accordance with the dynamics of the environments to ensure substantial returns. We note that leveraging the sensing capability assists in understanding the locations of served/detected users/objects, increasing awareness of potential blockages, and reducing signaling overheads required for environmental control. Thus, ISAC technologies can in turn assist in beneficially ameliorating the propagation environments, hence resulting in a win-win integration with mutual benefits. However, achieving improved ISAC performance and more efficient propagation control is a challenging new problem.

Against these backdrop, we offer a comprehensive overview of the integration of smart propagation engineering and ISAC systems, pointing out key challenges, exploring potential solutions, and identifying open future directions. Section II provides a more general definition for smart propagation engineering, including several enabling techniques. Section III briefly discusses propagation engineering for ISAC, while Section IV presents ISAC solutions for radio environmental control. Section VI enlists compelling future directions in ISAC enhanced by smart propagation engineering. Section V presents simulation-based verification of smart propagation engineering for ISAC. Finally, Section VII concludes this work.

II Key technologies of Smart Environments

In this section, we provide a holistic view of smart propagation engineering: They utilize various forms of antennas and network entities for flexibly controlling the propagation between transmitters and receivers with increased degrees of freedom (DoF), and achieve smart time/frequency/spatial domain resource allocation for various sensing, communication, and computing tasks. In the following, we explore several techniques with the ability of radio environmental control and discuss their characteristics, advantages, challenges, and promising future directions.

Figure 1: Illustration of Smart Environments for ISAC.

II-A Intelligent Surfaces

With the exploitation of myriads of low-cost reflecting/refracting elements, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) [8] and stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIMs) [9] can adaptively ameliorate the propagation channel between transmitters and receivers by beneficially designing their phase shifts and/or amplification. Intelligent surfaces can be placed in strategic locations to circumvent blocked line-of-sight (LoS) connections between transmitters and receivers, as shown in Fig. 1. Alongside this deployment strategy, intelligent surfaces can also be mounted onto mobile platforms, such as vehicles, drones, and even user terminals, providing a promising solution to enable these objects to modulate ambient signals as well as reflections, and actively assist their own localization and other services [8]. With a larger surface operating in a higher frequency band, RISs often implicate operation in the near field, where the spherical nature of the electromagnetic waves has to be considered. This in turn offers new opportunities to exploit precise spatial beam focusing both in angle and range, and to design bent beams for avoiding blockages [10]. These offer profound opportunities to improve the propagation environment.

II-B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Other Autonomous Platforms

For complementing conventional terrestrial cellular networks, BSs or relays may also be installed on unmanned aerial/ground/underwater vehicles to provide enhanced coverage, as shown in Fig. 1. By designing the placements/trajectories of these mobile BSs/relays on demand, the network topology can be dynamically adjusted in accordance with specific network requirements and services. For example, by exploiting the UAVs’ high mobility and strong air-ground LoS links, larger coverage, flexible observation position, and enhanced S&C performance can be achieved [6]. However, UAVs typically encounter challenges due to strict constraints on their size, weight, and power, which inevitably limit their capabilities. Additionally, stronger air-to-ground LoS links may cause severe interference. Besides these autonomous vehicles, high-altitude platforms (HAPs) are able to offer observation or communication services, typically powered with renewable sources and thus offering services with net-zero emissions. Moreover, thanks to the reduced launch cost and deployment time, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems offer promising opportunities for flexible global coverage.

II-C Flexible-Position FAS-aided Communications

In FAS [4], the positions of antennas at transmitters and/or receivers can be dynamically changed to obtain improved channel conditions, e.g., enhancing the channel gain and reducing the potential interference. A massive array of fluid antennas provides greater flexibility in designing beam width, avoiding undesirable side lobes, adjusting the frequency response of the array, and improving interference management. This is in contrast to traditional fixed-position antenna arrays, which suffer from reduced array gains due to inherent limitations in array geometry. Moreover, altering the positions of antennas could modify the Rayleigh distance [11], which sets the boundary between the far-field and near-field channels. While this further augments the near-field capabilities of RIS and the resultant propagation benefits, in practice, it is challenging to appropriately design the transmit beamforming vectors around the Rayleigh distance due to the dynamic antenna geometry. Moreover, existing far-field and near-field channel estimation schemes cannot be directly used for accurately estimating the "mixed"-field MIMO channel, which requires further investigation.

TABLE I: Illustration of several technologies roles in ISAC applications.

​​ Smart Propagation Engineering technology${}^{\mathrm{\star }}$ ​​​​​	Category	Main functionalities	Smart Propagation ​​ for ISAC	ISAC for Smart Propagation ​​
Intelligent surfaces	Adaptive channel	Control for	Improve channel DoF,	low-cost/latency
(e.g., RIS, SIM)		propagation channel	enhance sensing diversity,	channel estimation,
UAVs, HAPs	Mobile BS/relay	Management for	higher spectral efficiency,	blockage awareness
LEO satellite		transmission topology	interference suppression,	channel control,
Fluid antenna	Advanced antennas	Transmitter/receiver	S&C coordination gain,	AI-aided predictive
Holographic MIMO		antenna geometry	multi-cell cooperation	resource allocation

• •

  ${}^{\star }$By smart propagation engineering technology, we refer to any hardware technology that has the ability to engineer the radio propagation channel.

II-D Cooperative Smart Environment Control

Effectively combining the above-mentioned techniques can proactively adapt to the wireless propagation environments. We categorize these smart technologies into three types based on their functions and objectives, as presented in Table I. These technologies may cooperate to efficiently manage the radio environment in terms of time, energy, and cost by leveraging their shared features and differences. Typically, UAVs work hand-in-hand with RISs to create virtual LoS channels for improving S&C coverage, as shown in the top-right corner of Fig. 1. Consequently, the channel gain improvement enabled by the exploitation of RISs can eliminate the need for UAVs to fly closer to users or targets, thereby reducing the UAV’s flight distance, power consumption and increasing its recharge interval. An example architecture was demonstrated in [12] where the authors proposed a UAV-aided RIS framework for maximizing the network throughput. On the other hand, FASs can adjust the antenna position according to the UAV trajectory and the RIS phase shifts, leading to more efficient exploitation of both random environmental scattering and controllable environmental reflection. In turn, RISs can be optimized concerning the antenna position for stronger signal power and for effective passive beam focusing.

Jointly optimizing the trajectory of mobile BSs, the phase shifts of RIS elements, and the position of FASs is extremely challenging due to the coupling of variables. However, it also presents new opportunities for fully unleashing the power of smart propagation engineering. It is noted that more resource cooperation provides improved flexibility to manage the radio environment, but it inevitably introduces more interactions amongst devices and more complex channel estimation processes. Therefore, when controlling the radio environment based on the near-instantaneous radio map, an intriguing question is how to effectively harness these three types of resources for collaborative propagation engineering at low computational complexity and low signaling overhead. Moreover, to provide efficient, reliable, and robust S&C services that meet the dynamic requirements of tasks, a cooperative smart propagation regime centered on users/targets remains an elusive challenge.

III Smart Propagation Engineering for ISAC

In this section, we discuss opportunities for exploiting smart technologies to provide enhanced ISAC services by improving the S&C channel gain, achieving augmented mutual assistance between S&C, and ultimately for designing cooperative ISAC networks.

III-A Improving S&C Performance via Enhancing the Channel Gain

To achieve enhanced S&C performance, a key challenge of ISAC assisted by smart propagation engineering is to simultaneously achieve the potentially conflicting channel control objectives of S&C. Specifically, cooperative radio environmental control necessitates the creation of high-rank channels associated with greater flexibility for data transmission, thereby achieving improved spatial resource allocation for enhancing the multiplexing gain, diversity gain, and interference nulling. By contrast, for sensing, typically only LoS links are useful, and non-LoS (NLoS) links are treated as unfavorable interference [7]. Thus, cooperative techniques should establish more LoS links for providing improved sensing coverage, more diverse observation angles, and richer target parameters. Propagation engineering offers key opportunities in fine-tuning the propagation channel for striking a balance between these conflicting S&C objectives of ISAC systems by optimizing the trajectory/placement of mobile transmitters/receivers, RIS phase shifts, FAS positions, etc. For instance, treated as both a mobile BS and a synthetic radar aperture, a UAV may optimize its trajectory to strike a balance between pathloss and channel gains for communication users, and observation diversity for targets. Moreover, to optimize the antenna position in FAS, smart propagation engineering may exploit channel paths to amplify the effective channel gains from the BS to all users. On the other hand, it additionally has to create larger antenna array apertures for capturing more echo signals from multiple directions, thereby improving the sensing performance attained.

III-B Enhanced Integration Gain Between S&C

An ISAC system can optimize its performance by strengthening the coupling between its S&C channels [13]. This facilitates more efficient exploitation of unified signals for S&C tasks. In the following, we outline how smart propagation engineering enhances the correlation of S&C channels. Firstly, considering that the S&C channel correlation is determined by the angular separations between users and targets, the trajectory of mobile BSs significantly impacts the resource allocation and waveform design of mobile ISAC systems. Thus it is essential to jointly design the transmit beamforming and trajectory to enhance the S&C performance [6]. Secondly, the S&C subspace of RISs having weak coupling may be rotated for improved coupling by adjusting the RIS phase shifts, hence striking improved S&C tradeoffs [13]. Thirdly, in FAS, the new DoF attained by antenna position optimization can be exploited for maximizing the S&C signal power over a desired direction and for simultaneously reducing the potential interference. Evidently, the collaborative resource design of UAVs, RISs, and FASs offers new opportunities for improving the S&C channel correlation. In particular, for operation in the near-field, achieving efficient cooperative control offers new opportunities for exploiting the channel correlation between users and targets not only in the angular domain but also in the distance domain [11].

III-C Smart Environment for Near-Field ISAC

Again, the electromagnetic (EM) field radiated from antennas can be partitioned into near-field and far-field regions, where the EM waves in these regions exhibit different propagation properties, as shown in Fig. 2(a). Specifically, for targets/users near the antenna array, smart propagation engineering should consider spherical wave modeling, as the planar wave approximation is no longer valid. In contrast to far-field beamforming design, a transmitter array is designed to concentrate the beam at a specific location, termed as beamfocusing. This enables the formation of spot beams (beam power concentrated on a specific angle and range), allowing for simultaneous serving/detection of users/targets in the same direction, which is not easily accomplished in the far field. Importantly, due to potential blockages, different sets of clusters/users/targets may be visible from different portions of the antenna array or intelligent surfaces, as shown in Fig. 2(b). In this case, given the spherical wavefronts, the radiation from the unobstructed portion of the aperture can still converge to the desired focal point of beam focusing, as shown in Fig. 2(b). Furthermore, the near field may even permit the generation of curved beams that circumvent obstacles [10]. For instance, the self-regenerating properties of Bessel beams [10] restore the beam after encountering an obstacle with negligible reduction in radiation intensity. These properties facilitate the provision of robust S&C services in obstructed scenarios. In the near-field scenarios, variations of Doppler across these antennas offer new opportunities to estimate the radial and transverse velocities of targets, in turn also presenting new challenges to smart propagation engineering for ISAC systems.

Figure 2: Illustration of ISAC for Near-field Smart Environments.

III-D Cooperative ISAC Networks

For network-level ISAC, inter-cell interference is a critical issue that limits the overall network performance. Interference suppression via smart propagation engineering is a promising technique of improving the S&C performance of ISAC networks, yet there is a paucity of related investigations in the literature. For instance, exploiting the UAV mobility combined with beamforming design effectively reduces the interference between BSs and UAVs. The RIS phase shift design should aim for reducing channel correlation between distinct users/targets and BSs, thereby mitigating multi-user/target interference [3]. FASs can exploit the potential diversity provided by the environment to avoid inter-cell S&C interference. In addition to coordinated interference management, the cooperative S&C benefits of ISAC networks is another promising paradigm. Specifically, by fully exploiting the potential of smart propagation engineering, a powerful combination of distributed/multistatic MIMO radar and coordinated multipoint transmission/reception can be supported. For instance, UAVs can serve as mobile transmitters/receivers to enhance S&C coordination. Furthermore, intelligent surfaces play a crucial role in establishing additional S&C channels, while FASs have the capability of dynamically adjusting the antenna geometry, for meeting near-instantaneous S&C requirements. However, designing a cooperative scheme for the smart environments of ISAC networks that effectively balances performance against complexity remains a challenging open issue hinging on sophisticated resource allocation.

At the network level of ISAC, conflicting metrics such as coverage and quality of service have to be balanced to meet the demanding overall network performance requirements. Specifically, if larger clusters of BSs work together to provide improved S&C services, the overall network spectrum efficiency will generally be reduced, since fewer users/targets can be served simultaneously. Furthermore, the challenge in designing and optimizing the resources of the ISAC network lies in judiciously balancing the various performance indicators, while taking into account both the channel fading and the unknown locations of targets/users. To tackle this issue, a useful approach is to apply stochastic geometry tools, which consider the random locations of BSs, users, and targets, along with random channel fading. This allows for modelling the relationships amongst various parameters and consequently facilitates more efficient optimization of the network resources, RIS/UAV positioning and FAS design.

IV ISAC for Smart Environments

In this section, we explore the ISAC-benefits of smart propagation engineering, including cooperative engineering, low-overhead control, predictive resource allocation, and blockage awareness.

IV-A ISAC for Cooperative Smart Environment

Harnessing numerous UAVs, RISs, and FASs for effective cooperation is a promising option for improving the S&C performance and for reducing the time/energy consumption, but it also poses challenges related to the essential information exchange across systems. To tackle this issue, the S&C functionalities of ISAC systems can be exploited to facilitate the collaboration of the various system components. For instance, based on the dynamics of targets and users, it is conducive to combine sensing results and dispatch request messages for collaboration based on the fusion of sensory data [2]. This enables these systems to operate in dynamic clusters, identifying potent cooperation that maximizes gains, while avoiding deficient cooperation having only incremental gains. Moreover, incorporating sensory data, such as the positions of users and targets, can prevent unnecessary control procedures. For example, if the channel fluctuation in a particular area drops below a certain threshold, the resource allocations do not have to be updated. It is worth noting that ISAC is capable of managing radio propagation across various geographical scales. Since the UAV movement is of limited speed, it is more suitable for propagation engineering in scenarios of more relaxed latency requirements. Intelligent surface technology by contrast allows for near-real-time applications, but over a limited area. With the use of an FAS, the antenna position can be adjusted based on the channel status and user mobility characteristics.

IV-B ISAC for Low Overhead Control

Resource optimization in smart UAV, RIS, and FAS aided scenarios relies heavily on the channel state information (CSI) as well as on the locations of users and targets. Estimating the CSI becomes complex as the number of nodes plus active and passive antennas increases, especially when these systems collaborate with each other. Therefore, sensing-assisted CSI estimation in ISAC systems shows great potential to reduce training overhead [8, 14]. By representing CSI in terms of path-delay and angle in fewer dimensions, we can significantly reduce the CSI estimation overhead. Employing sensing for improved beam steering may even circumvent CSI acquisition altogether by exploiting the direction finding capabilities of radar to inform the BS of the user’s direction for high-gain beam focusing. In [8], an ISAC framework using vehicle-mounted intelligent surfaces was conceived for strategically directing the echo signals towards the sensing receivers. By exploiting the high-accuracy sensing results, the signaling overhead of the RIS phase shift design may be effectively reduced. Moreover, the uplink data transmission of communication users may also be harnessed for gathering information on the environmental and target status for smart propagation engineering.

Different smart propagation engineering technologies achieve low-overhead control in unique ways. For instance, incorporating sensors into the RIS enhances its capability of analyzing echo signals. Hence, the sensing results support self-adaptive passive beamforming design, without necessitating any control signals from the BS. Sensing harnessed for user discovery may also reduce the UAV-user interaction, facilitating real-time trajectory design. Furthermore, environment-related sensing results (e.g., locations of scatterers) facilitate seamless FAS adaptation, without requiring CSI estimation. Additionally, the sensing results can be used for constructing a 3D map of the environment, including both dynamic and quasi-static information. This map enables the modeling of wave propagation through ray-tracing techniques, thereby reducing the need for environmental control and ultimately the overhead. Apart from facilitating smart propagation engineering in a single cell, ISAC can also reduce the corresponding time/power consumption of handovers between, for example, UAV-mounted BSs and terrestrial BSs, and thus conserve time and power resources.

Figure 3: Illustration of ISAC for smart environments.

IV-C Predictive Resource Allocation for Smart Environments

Based on the estimated user and target dynamics as well as service requirements of S&C, predictive resource allocation for UAV, RIS, and FAS can reduce service delays and improve reliability. However, it is challenging to jointly optimize the resource allocation of multiple nodes due to the coupled variables. A possible solution is to actively/passively track the state of the served/detected users/targets only individually [8]. The system can then combine local sensor data and predict the trajectories of the corresponding users/targets, as shown in Fig. 3. By jointly optimizing the network’s resource allocation and user/target scheduling together with the smart environment, high-quality S&C services can be achieved. In addition to predictive design based on sensing results, more efficient resource allocation can be supported based on predicting demands for data transmission services.

IV-D Blockage Awareness for Channel Control

While the above potential performance enhancements are promising, they erode due to potential blockages. Hence, blockage awareness through sensing is beneficial for reliable and robust S&C services in dense obstruction scenarios. According to the estimated movement of users/targets, the UAV location can be optimized based on accurate environmental information to avoid blockages and reduce propagation losses. For near-field S&C, the antenna or surface array may be partially blocked [10], as shown in Fig. 2(b). In other words, the energy of each user/target is focused on a particular section of the array, as different regions of the array may observe different users. Furthermore, large targets themselves may cause potential blockages, and thus the propagation engineering should be designed by giving cognizance to blockages. In turn, blockages can be exploited for significantly reducing interference between users and cells. As a result, environmental awareness through ISAC offers a breakthrough capability for controlling propagation based on user locations to avoid outages.

V Case study: Propagation Engineering for ISAC

Figure 4: Illustration of simulation scenarios.

Figure 5: Rate improvement by smart propagation engineering.

To demonstrate the efficiency of propagation engineering for ISAC, we consider the optimization of communication performance under sensing performance constraints. As shown in Fig. 4, we jointly optimize the resources of a UAV, a RIS, and several users supported by a FAS. Fig. 5 characterizes various propagation engineering designs and their achievable rates under different sensing performance constraints. The UAV’s maximum horizontal flight speed is set as 30 m/s with a flight altitude of 30 m. Additionally, the noise power at the user and the UAV are set to -70 dBm and -90 dBm, respectively, and the maximum transmit power is 1 W.

Observe from Fig. 5 that collaborative smart propagation engineering using all three techniques significantly enhances the rate attained, compared to the unassisted scenarios. However, as the sensing echo signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases, the achievable rate of the communication schemes relying on the assistance of smart propagation engineering decreases rapidly. The primary reason is that smart propagation engineering systems tend to dedicate more resources to the sensing task due to the high sensing SNR required at the cost of communication performance erosion. When the sensing SNR requirement exceeds a certain value, it becomes impractical to achieve satisfactory sensing performance without the assistance of smart propagation engineering. By contrast, the schemes relying on UAV systems can extend the region of adequate sensing performance, while significantly improving communication performance, especially for lower sensing demand. This is because accurate UAV trajectory design significantly reduces the pathloss by performing S&C tasks closer to targets and users.

VI Open Problems

The horizon for research and innovation in both smart propagation engineering and ISAC technologies is wide open. Some of these are discussed as follows.

VI-A AI assisted Smart Environment for ISAC

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based approaches offer a promising solution for the scenarios of hostile wireless channels and user mobility, eliminating the need for time-consuming iterations routinely harnessed in traditional algorithms [15]. AI facilitates the real-time adaptation of smart environments by predicting future network states using the recent propagation data gathered. Furthermore, the complexity of the holistic smart environment design across UAV trajectories, RIS phase shifts, and FAS positioning, may be reduced by AI solutions upon evaluating only a fraction of the combined search-space. The sensing functionality of ISAC in turn has a lot to offer for harnessing intelligence in the face of uncertainty. Real-time data gathering by sensing throughout every transmission is the only way to create native network intelligence. Finally, federated learning (FL) provides a promising solution for privacy-preserving distributed training. One could envisage each smart system updating its local AI model based on ISAC data and sending the parameters to a central server for global AI model update in a FL manner. This requires a bespoke training algorithm for the ISAC process, which deserves further investigation.

VI-B Smart Environments for Secure ISAC

ISAC comes with its own unique security challenges due to the shared use of spectrum and the broadcast nature of wireless transmission. While smart propagation engineering strikes a flexible balance in simultaneously achieving secure S&C, the high complexity of obtaining the locations and channels of potential eavesdroppers makes securing ISAC services particularly challenging. Furthermore, sensing imposes vulnerability on the network, since an unauthorized sensing receiver may eavesdrop on the target’s location information, or may illegitimately acquire situational awareness. Unlike communication security, which can be designed at the data level to prevent eavesdroppers from obtaining information, sensing security can only be designed at the physical layer. Therefore, how to adapt smart environments to facilitate S&C security is an issue worth studying.

VI-C Smart Environments for Vehicular ISAC Cooperation

For highly dynamic vehicular networks, developing a general solution for smart propagation engineering has substantial challenges. Considering that vehicles on the same road often have similar mobility characteristics, particularly for platoons travelling in a specific formation, it is advantageous to exploit these similarities for minimizing control overhead by designing vehicular cooperation schemes. Smart environments can help vehicles collaboratively obtain information in a wider field of view, thereby providing more comprehensive situational awareness for transportation. By contrast, the sensing results obtained by vehicular onboard sensors can be used for efficient control of smart environments.

VII Conclusions

Integrating multiple smart propagation engineering techniques with ISAC presents significant design challenges, but also compelling opportunities. We have discussed new design considerations and highlighted essential challenges for the joint design of smart environments and ISAC, revealing their mutual benefits. We further showcased the benefits of these concepts through an ISAC case study. Given the relatively uncharted territory of ISAC empowered by smart propagation engineering, this article endeavored to inspire future research in this field.

References

• [1] J. A. Zhang et al., “An overview of signal processing techniques for joint communication and radar sensing,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Signal Process., vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 1295–1315, Nov. 2021.
• [2] F. Liu et al., “Integrated sensing and communications: Toward dual-functional wireless networks for 6G and beyond,” IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1728–1767, Jun. 2022.
• [3] M. A. ElMossallamy et al., “Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for wireless communications: Principles, challenges, and opportunities,” IEEE Trans. on Cogn. Commun. Netw., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 990–1002, Sep. 2020.
• [4] K.-K. Wong, A. Shojaeifard, K.-F. Tong, and Y. Zhang, “Fluid antenna systems,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 1950–1962, Mar. 2021.
• [5] C. Huang et al., “Holographic MIMO surfaces for 6G wireless networks: Opportunities, challenges, and trends,” IEEE Wireless Commun., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 118–125, 2020.
• [6] K. Meng et al., “Throughput maximization for UAV-enabled integrated periodic sensing and communication,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 671–687, Jan. 2023.
• [7] R. Liu, M. Li, H. Luo, Q. Liu, and A. L. Swindlehurst, “Integrated sensing and communication with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: Opportunities, applications, and future directions,” IEEE Wireless Commun., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 50–57, Feb. 2023.
• [8] K. Meng et al., “Sensing-assisted communication in vehicular networks with intelligent surface,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Commun., pp. 1–17, 2023.
• [9] J. An et al., “Stacked intelligent metasurfaces for efficient holographic MIMO communications in 6G,” IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., vol. 41, no. 8, pp. 2380–2396, 2023.
• [10] A. Singh et al., “Wavefront engineering: Realizing efficient TeraHertz band communications in 6G and beyond,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.12636, 2023.
• [11] M. Cui, Z. Wu, Y. Lu, X. Wei, and L. Dai, “Near-field MIMO communications for 6G: Fundamentals, challenges, potentials, and future directions,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 40–46, 2023.
• [12] M.-H. T. Nguyen, E. Garcia-Palacios, T. Do-Duy, O. A. Dobre, and T. Q. Duong, “UAV-aided aerial reconfigurable intelligent surface communications with massive MIMO system,” IEEE Trans. Cogn. Commun. Netw., vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 1828–1838, 2022.
• [13] S. P. Chepuri, N. Shlezinger, F. Liu, G. C. Alexandropoulos, S. Buzzi, and Y. C. Eldar, “Integrated sensing and communications with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.01003, 2022.
• [14] S. Mura, M. Mizmizi, U. Spagnolini, and A. Petropulu, “Enhanced channel estimation in mm-wave MIMO systems leveraging integrated communication and sensing,” in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Seoul, Korea, 2024.
• [15] S. Evmorfos, A. P. Petropulu, and H. V. Poor, “Actor-critic methods for IRS design in correlated channel environments: A closer look into the neural tangent kernel of the critic,” IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 71, pp. 4029–4044, 2023.

Turkish UCAV Akıncı test fires Roketsan ÇAKIR cruise missile

Türkiye Tests ÇAKIR cruise missile fired from AKINCI TİHA. 

Çakir is a modern cruise missile developed by Turkey's defense industry and was recently test-fired from the Akinci Tiha (Turkish: Bayraktar Akinci Tactical UAV), a large drone designed and produced by the country's leading drone manufacturer Baykar. 

The successful test-firing of the Çakir missile from the Akinci Tiha is a significant milestone for Turkey's defense industry, as it demonstrates the country's capability to produce advanced unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and precision-guided munitions. 

The Akinci Tiha is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone capable of conducting a wide range of missions, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), target acquisition, and strike missions. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 5,500 kg, a wingspan of 20 meters, and a range of up to 6,000 kilometers.

Baykar’s UAV integrated with domestic missile - Türkiye News

hurriyetdailynews.com

---

Baykar’s UAV integrated with domestic missile

ANKARA

Akıncı, the armed unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Turkish defense company Baykar, has achieved a precise hit on a target at sea from a distance of 100 kilometers in a test launch using the domestically developed Çakır cruise missile.

As part of the Bayraktar Akıncı Project under the leadership of the Presidency of Defense Industries, integration efforts for new ammunition and systems continue, with a new landmark achieved with the integration of the Çakır cruise missile.

The unmanned aerial vehicle conducted another test with the missile developed nationally by Roketsan at the Akıncı Flight Training and Test Center in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ’s Çorlu district.

Taking off with the Çakır missile, Bayraktar Akıncı flew to the northern province of Sinop for a long-range firing test. Fired from the unmanned aerial vehicle at the Sinop firing range from a distance of 100 kilometers, the Çakır cruise missile hit the target over the Black Sea at a speed of 800 km/h with precise accuracy.

The Bayraktar Akıncı UAV, which entered the inventory of Azerbaijan, had its first flight on Feb. 9, witnessed by Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev and Baykar Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar. The export and cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia in 2023 became the largest single export agreement in the history of the Turkish defense and aerospace industry.

Turkish UCAV Akıncı fires Roketsan cruise missile in global 1st | Daily Sabah

The Turkish defense industry giant Roketsan-made Çakır cruise missile was successfully fired from the state-of-the-art unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) Akıncı.

A Çakır cruise missile is seen deployed under the Akıncı UCAV
before being fired in an undisclosed location, May 11, 2023.
(Courtesy of SSB)

The Çakır was deployed at an altitude of 7,000 meters, marking its inaugural flight with the indigenous turbojet engine KALE KTJ-1750.

Ismail Demir, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) shared the images of the test-firing of the Çakır missile on his social media account.

“For the first time in the world, a cruise missile was fired from a UCAV,” he wrote.

Demir said that the missile was fired with an engine whose critical components were domestic and hit the target with pinpoint accuracy, congratulating the local defense industry.

The Çakır cruise missile is a cutting-edge weapon system designed to enhance the capabilities of the armed forces across various platforms including land, sea and air.

Leveraging state-of-the-art features and an effective warhead, the Çakır cruise missile empowers Roketsan to shape the battlefield with innovative technologies.

This versatile missile can be launched from a range of platforms such as fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, UCAVs, armed unmanned sea vehicles (AUSVs), tactical wheeled land vehicles and surface platforms.

Its operational flexibility equips users with an array of options to engage both land and sea targets effectively.

With a range exceeding 150 kilometers (90 miles), the Çakır cruise missile enables precise strikes against surface targets, land and shoreline targets, strategic land installations, expansive areas, and even fortified caves.

With its advanced intermediate stage and terminal guidance systems, Çakır is able to engage its targets with high precision in all weather. Thanks to the network-based data link, it also allows target change and task cancellation depending on user selection while advancing to the target.

Next-Level Arsenal for Akinci: Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle Successfully Launches Cakir Cruise Missile | Defense Express

en.defence-ua.com

---

Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle Akinci successfully launched the Çakır cruise missile, equipped with the domestic turbojet engine KTJ-1750 from Kale Arge, developed by Roketsan. The Chairman of the Presidency of Defence Industries of the Republic of Turkey (Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı, SSB), Ismail Demir, shared the news on his Twitter account.

"All critical components of Çakır, released from AKINCI TIHA, were propelled by a domestic engine and hit the target with high precision," the statement said.

Çakir cruise misilles / Photo credit: MilliTeknolojiHamlesi

Çakır missile is a state-of-the-art Turkish development, first introduced in 2022. It is designed to engage ground and surface targets. The missile can fly close to the water surface, has terrain-following capability, and features the option to update its route, change targets, or abort the mission during flight. It can also maneuver as required.

Çakir cruise missile launch / Illustrative photo by Roketsan

The tactical and technical specifications of this missile are as follows: length - 3.3 m, total weight - 275 kg, with a warhead weighing 70 kg. It has a range of 150 km, a cruise speed of 0.75-0.85 Mach, and can be equipped with fragmentation, thermobaric, or armor-piercing warheads.

It's worth noting that this is the second cruise missile associated with Akinci unmanned aerial vehicle that has made headlines recently. Previously, we reported on the official demonstration of the mini cruise missile Kemankes by the Turkish Company Baykar, designed for integration with Bayraktar series UAVs, including TB2, TB3, and Akinci.

This cruise missile is capable of engaging targets up to 200 km away, and weighs 35 kg, with a warhead weighing 6 kg. The first missile launch is expected within 1-2 months, and serial production is planned to commence by the end of this year.

---

---

 

Chinese Navy Liaoning aircraft carrier returns to sea with J-15 and J-35 jet mockups

Chinese Navy Liaoning aircraft carrier returns to sea with J-15 and J-35 jet mockups

navyrecognition.com

---

---

As reported by Caiyunxiangjiang Louis Cheung on February 29, 2024, a new video has provided a clearer perspective on the J-35 mockup situated on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier, suggesting that the vessel, after its return to sea, is undergoing deck-handling trials. This development is pivotal, as it suggests a shift from previous plans which anticipated the deployment of the J-35 on China’s forthcoming generation of carriers, specifically designed with catapult systems as opposed to the existing ski-jump ramps.

---

 

The Liaoning aircraft carrier of the Chinese Navy is back at sea
with mockups of J-15 and J-35 jets. (Picture source: Caiyunxiangjiang)

---

Additionally, the imagery showcases a mockup of the J-15 fighter alongside the J-35 on the Liaoning. The J-15, a regular component of China's operational aircraft carrier groups, particularly on the Liaoning and Shandong, appears to be undergoing evaluation for compatibility and training purposes in conjunction with the J-35. The presence of the J-15 mockup, potentially hinting at a new variant of the aircraft, is indicated by the unique shape of the cockpit area, which is visible beneath its protective covering.

The J-15, known in NATO terminology as Flanker-X2 and also referred to as the Flying Shark, is China's primary carrier-based aircraft. Originating from the design framework of the Russian Su-33, it incorporates two Shenyang WS-10A engines, achieving a maximum speed of 2,410 km/h and maintaining operational range capabilities up to 3,500 km. Despite its advanced design, the J-15's operational efficacy is partially restricted by the Liaoning's ski-jump launch mechanism, impacting its fuel consumption and thereby influencing its payload capacity and maximum takeoff weight.

Andreas Rupprecht, a noted observer of Chinese aerospace developments, has discussed the potential use of the J-15 mockups for the development of an electronic warfare variant, speculated to be designated as the J-15D. This variant would represent a significant step towards enhancing the electronic warfare capabilities of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), mirroring the functionalities of comparable systems like the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler.

The employment of aircraft mockups is a recognized practice in naval operations for facilitating the training of deck-handling procedures, including the operation of aircraft elevators and the management of space on the flight deck and in hangar areas. Such practices contribute to the operational readiness and efficiency of aircraft carrier crews.

Recent activities involving the Liaoning, including the integration and testing of the J-35 and potential J-15D variants, signal a progression towards more advanced maritime operations. This also indicates a continued development of the capabilities of China’s current carrier fleet, which operates primarily with Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) systems, in contrast to the future catapult-assisted takeoff but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) systems planned for new carriers.

The J-35, specifically designed for carrier operations, while limited by the ski-jump ramp system, is expected to offer new operational capabilities. Designed for single-pilot operations, the aircraft is tailored for carrier compatibility and aerodynamic efficiency, featuring specifications that support its role in varied mission scenarios. The aircraft's design facilitates a balance between maneuverability and operational range, complemented by an array of advanced onboard avionic systems.

The unfolding scenario surrounding the J-35 and the upgraded J-15 variants on Chinese aircraft carriers reflects the country's ongoing efforts to expand and refine its naval air power capabilities. These advancements are indicative of China's broader military modernization efforts, aiming to enhance the operational scope and strategic depth of its naval forces. The Liaoning’s transition from a training to a combat platform, along with its adaptations for increased aircraft carriage and defensive capabilities, underlines the strategic evolution of China's naval ambitions and its engagement in expanding its maritime operational readiness.

---

Fresh sightings of J-35 progress on deck of China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier

scmp.com

---

Photos have been posted online of an apparent full-scale dummy of China’s new fifth-generation fighter on one of the country’s aircraft carriers.

The images began circulating on Weibo last week and appear to be of a model of a J-35 stealth fighter on the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier.

Then on Monday state-owned, Hong Kong-based newspaper Wen Wei Pao published clearer pictures of the dummy wrapped in a tarpaulin on the carrier at a shipyard on the northeast coast owned by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company.

Photos of what appears to be a full-scale model of a J-35 on the deck of the Liaoning have surfaced on Chinese social media. Photo: Weibo

The J-35 is being developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation as China’s second fifth-generation fighter jet, following the J-20.

The jet is designed for use on aircraft carriers and is still in the development and prototype phase but it is touted as the Chinese equivalent of Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation fighter jet, the F-35.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the dummy of the J-35 could serve various purposes.

“One most straightforward assessment is that the Liaoning, which has long been designated as a test bed for PLA carrier capabilities, is conducting experiments on the J-35 as a viable carrier-borne fighter jet,” Koh said.

He said the dummy could also be for “signalling purposes”.

China at a Glance Newsletter

Your daily must-read of essential stories from China, including politics, economy and current affairs.

By submitting, you consent to receiving marketing emails from SCMP. If you don't want these, tick here

“The Chinese are possibly aware they’re being watched with interest by external parties so the mock-up is put out there in open view to send a veritable signal, possibly to the US,” Koh said.

A model of next-generation jet was on show at the World Defence Show in the Saudi capital Riyadh earlier this month. Photo: AFP

A scale model of the J-35 was first unveiled at the Zhuhai Airshow in 2012 and observers say the most recent images indicate the jets could soon be in operation.

Once handed over to the People’s Liberation Army, the J-35 is likely to be mixed and matched with the fourth-generation J-15 already on the Liaoning and Shandong, China’s second carrier.

The J-35s will also reportedly be stationed on the Fujian, the country’s newest aircraft carrier, which is undergoing sea trials and expected to be in service by 2025.

Unlike its two predecessors, which used ski-jump take-off ramps, the Fujian has an electromagnetic catapult system that allows planes to be launched more frequently and with more fuel and munitions.

Yue Gang, a retired PLA colonel, said it was feasible to deploy the J-35 on all three Chinese carriers.

But the fighter’s guidance systems and maintenance facilities would have to be adapted for the Liaoning, the carrier that was commissioned over a decade ago.

“If the deployment test on Liaoning is successful ... the same deployment will be implemented on the Shandong and Fujian ships as soon as possible,” he said, adding that similar developments in Japan and the US had prompted China to speed up.

China airs footage of Fujian aircraft carrier featuring advanced catapult launch system

But having J-35s on carriers of different launch types could be challenging, according to Yoon Suk-joon, a visiting research fellow at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs and specialist in Chinese weapons systems.

“There is a significant technical and operational difference between the [ski jump ramps] and the [electromagnetic catapult] method,” Yoon said.

“This means that even if the J-35 type is mounted on the Fujian for sea trials, training is required for the carrier-based aircraft pilots already on the Liaoning and Shandong.

“There is a big difference between doing this on an actual aircraft carrier than on the ground.”

China has been promoting its new stealth fighters abroad in an attempt to present its aircraft as a choice for countries without access to US and European fifth-generation jets.

Chinese state-owned firms showcased a model of a J-35 – also known as the FC-31 – at the World Defence Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier this month. It was also featured in the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi last year.

Last month, Pakistani Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu announced that his country planned to buy the jets as part of plans to modernise its air force, but did not give further details of the procurement.

Koh said that he was not aware of potential buyers other than Pakistan.

“Still, the J-35 would serve as a potential alternative buy among a host of offerings worldwide, and depending on the client’s financing ability and mission requirements, as well as political considerations,” Koh said.

“But for now, one can only say the J-35 has potential, especially among the less-endowed air arms around the world, in particular in the developing world.”

Russians Complain About Their Overpriced, Useless Drone Jammers

Russians Complain About Their Overpriced, Useless Drone Jammers – UAS VISION

uasvision.com

---

FPV kamikaze drones are a serious threat to Russian armour. A small racing quadcopter armed with an RPGRPG -0.9% warhead can destroy a main battle tank with one well-aimed hit, and lesser-armoured vehicles are even more vulnerable. Ukraine has hundreds of thousands of drones, and the only protection is jammers…which in the case of Russian soldiers, means betting your life on a highly corrupt procurement system, as one recent example shows.

Tank Protection Racket

The Breakwater (“Volnorez” / “волнорез” in Russian) electronic protection system was unveiled at the ARMY2023 show in Moscow last year. The size of a dinner plate and weighing 28 pounds, Breakwater attaches to the side of a tank or other vehicle with magnets, providing instant protection. Such devices are sometimes called ‘mushrooms’ or ‘tank boobs.’

The Breakwater creates an invisible 360-degree bubble of protection claimed to extend out to 600 – 1,000 metres, making it far more effective than ‘trench jammers’ which only work out to 50 metres and may not stop an FPV diving towards a target. It can be switched to jam any of twenty different channels commonly used to control drones. But each Breakwater only jams one band, so several may be needed.

According to one Russian military blog

“After being exposed to interference, most drones either veer off course, crashing into the ground, or remain stationary, marking time until they regain signal or run out of energy.”

Generating this protection takes some power, around 70 watts, of which 30 watts is broadcast as radio waves. To provide continuous protection Breakwater has to be installed on a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit; older models like the T-72 do not have one, so the system only works when the engine is on. The protection is blocked by metal, so tanks may have two or more Breakwaters to eliminate any dead zones.

Such jammers are widely sold online on Russia, and bought by charitable groups who send supplies to troops at the front.

You can buy a Breakwater here for 350,000 Rubles or about $3,800. But you might want to hear about one disgruntled buyer’s experience first.

Zero Stars, Do Not Buy

“Romanov Lite” is a Russian military blogger with over 100,000 followers on his Telegram channel, and who carries out frequent fundraising drives for medical supplies and protective gear for soldiers on the front line. And he was not happy with Breakwater.

“Soldiers who received these products are recommended to test them in the field, the results will not please you,”

he advised in a Telegram post, before giving more details of the problems he had found after taking one apart.

First of these was the standard of construction, – the device had clearly been assembled hastily with little or no quality control.

“Absolutely poor build quality. The impression is that the Chinese are soldering all this somewhere in the garage. Therefore, the mean time between failures is the same as in children’s transistors,”

wrote Romanov Lite.

Then there was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the evidence that the device was grossly overpriced in relation to its component parts.

“With a selling price of 350 thousand Rubles ($3800), its real price does not exceed 50 – 60 thousand ($540-$650).”

These should not have come as a shock. Overcharging for poorly-assembled devices made of cheap commercial electronics is pretty much standard in the Russian defence industry. But this jammer had some more fundamental design flaws too.

“The antenna creates a completely open “funnel” above the Breakwater, which Ukrainians spoke about,” says Romanov Lite.

The issue seems to be that the antenna does not, as stated, give full spherical coverage, but more of a toroidal or donut shape. If the opponent is aware of this blind spot — and it seems the Ukrainians are—they can use it to attack from a suitable angle.

There is a worse problem though.

“[In] A violation of all the laws of physics, the transistor module is located in a sealed container ABOVE the cooling radiator, where there is simply nowhere for heat to dissipate and by default it is doomed to burn out, which it does regularly ”

says Romanov Lite.

As noted above, Breakwater consumes 70 watts, converting 30 watts in radio waves; the other 40 watts are dissipated as heat. Managing excess heat is a common issue with electronics, which is why many desktops and laptops have cooling fans and smartphones in insulating cases may overheat.

The Breakwater’s radiator, which is supposed to disperse waste heat into the environment, is located in the heart of the device, so it just recirculates it instead. Even in a Ukrainian winter, the heat is enough to burn out the unit. Bad news for the tank crew, but potentially good news for the makers who can sell another unit, assuming the crew survive long enough to get one.

Follow the Money

These views were echoed by DanielR, a physicist who analyses Russian military hardware on Twitter/X ,

“When I started looking at these photos I was initially very confused as nothing made sense,” DanielR told Forbes. “This is because the quality was much worse than I had expected. “

DanielR was looking at pictures posted by “Serhii Flash” a Ukrainian electronics warfare expert who had dismantled a Breakwater and put his own scathing review online.

“Overall, the quality is more like an electronic toy or home appliance,”

says DanielR, who doubts that the flimsy device held together with sealant and nylon screws would survive for long on a tank.

In his critique, DanielR notes that the DC-DC power converter is a $10 consumer model that is inadequate for the job, and suggests that this is the part which is most likely to fail.

“It seems that someone is making a lot of money,” says DanielR.

Romanov Lite has promised to visit the factory where Breakwaters are made. But if this company disappears, another just like will likely take its place. There is a market desperate for drone jammers, and in the Russian defence business, that means money for crooks.

Source: Forbes

 

armyrecognition.com

Russia Unveils Portable Tank-Mounted Drone Jammer to Counter Ukrainian Attacks | weapons defence industry military technology UK | analysis focus army defence military industry army

---

---

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern warfare, the use of drones has become increasingly prevalent, posing significant threats to armored vehicles on the battlefield. Responding to this emerging challenge, Russia has unveiled its latest countermeasure, the REB "Волнорез" (Volnorez - Breakwater) electronic warfare jammers. This state-of-the-art system was first showcased and mounted on a T-80BVM Main Battle Tank (MBT) during the Russian Army Expo 2023 defense exhibition, capturing the attention of defense analysts worldwide.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

---

The Russian-made Volnorez portable drone jammer system can be easily mounted on a tank turret to counter drone attacks. (Picture source Facebook Garupan History)

---

The Volnorez boasts impressive frequency coverage, spanning from 900 MHz to 3,000 MHz. This wide spectrum ensures that it can effectively jam a variety of drones operating within this range. With the ability to disrupt drone signals from over a kilometer away, the Volnorez stands as a formidable deterrent against aerial threats. Once jammed, most drones either veer off course, crashing into the ground, or remain stationary, loitering in place until they either regain signal or deplete their power reserves. This capability ensures that vehicles equipped with the Volnorez, as well as those in its vicinity, gain a significant layer of protection against drone attacks, marking a game-changer in defensive capabilities, especially in conflict zones like Ukraine.

One of the standout features of the Volnorez is the versatility of its jammer antennas. These are magnetically attached, allowing for flexible placement on almost any part of the vehicle. Furthermore, the jammer signals are omnidirectional, ensuring 360° of protection regardless of the antenna's position on the vehicle. While it's believed that the Volnorez is primarily fitted on vehicles equipped with an auxiliary power unit (APU) to ensure uninterrupted operation, early tests of the system were conducted on a T-72B3 tank, which did not have an APU. This suggests potential versatility in its deployment across different vehicle platforms.

The introduction of the Volnorez jamming system underscores the importance of electronic warfare in modern combat scenarios. As the situation in Ukraine continues to evolve, the effectiveness of this new system will undoubtedly be closely watched by military experts and strategists around the globe.

---

Defense News September 2023