Imagine a device close to a radar, dedicated to drones, which fits in a rigid suitcase. We open it, we fix two antennas on either side of the central screen, and in a few seconds, we obtain the location, altitude, direction and speed of all the drones of the Chinese world n°1 , DJI, which fly within a radius of 5 to 50 km, depending on the version.
All these drones are identified, and those who fly them too, with absolute precision. These points on the map therefore become, in time of war, targets, hence the request of the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister to deactivate all DJI products sold outside Ukraine and in particular in Russia. Mykhailo Fedorov writes it in his letter to Frank Wangthe founder of DJI: the Russian army uses your products in Ukraine “to guide its missiles and kill civilians”.
This product is therefore AéroScope: a drone detector developed, in times of peace, to secure sensitive areas such as airports, prisons or even nuclear power plants, and to prevent wild overflights. Clearly, to avoid the blows of brilliance of activists or terrorists, and involuntary accidents.
According to a very knowledgeable source, the Russians do use AeroScope in Ukraine, but the Ukrainians have it too. More surprising: the number of units of this technology present in Ukraine: several hundred. It is therefore a real hunt for drones and drone pilots in this country 10% larger than France.
Why ? Because these small, very discreet civilian drones, which are equipped with a camera, make it possible to locate tanks and armored vehicles and to follow their movements. Blocking DJI products used by the Russian army – which nevertheless has many other means of observation than these small civilian drones – would therefore become an important strategic advantage for the Ukrainians.
“The government may require DJI to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but it will apply to all DJI drones, regardless of who flies them.”
DJI, Chinese manufacturer and world n°1 of civilian drones, in response to the Ukrainian governmentto Twitter
However, the Ukrainian request has little chance of succeeding, for several reasons. First, officially, AeroScope was designed not to be able to be deactivated. Apart from exceptions, the units are not connected to anything, neither to the mobile network nor to the Internet. DJI would therefore have no way of turning them off remotely.
Blocking the only DJI drones and systems used by the Russians? Impossible again: the manufacturer could, in absolute terms, release a software update that prevents its drones from working, but this would ground all of the brand’s drones worldwide, and therefore in particular the drones used by Ukrainians.
One solution remains: for DJI to create a no-fly zone, above all of Ukraine, for its devices. As was the case in Syria and Iraq in 2016, after the use of drones by the Islamic State as explosive devices.
It is technologically possible as DJI explained on Twitter, in response to the letter from the Ukrainian government. But Ukrainian drones could no longer fly either. For the moment, according to our information, DJI has not received any new official request from the Ukrainian government.