That is the second of a two-part story.
Drones have dramatically altered the worldwide paradigm of contemporary warfare, offering militaries and personnel worldwide with myriad capabilities on and off battlefields to subdue enemy assaults and infiltrate overseas territory. One overseas volunteer to Ukraine’s Armed Forces has translated his wartime expertise to spice up the subsequent technology of digital fight.
The following iteration of navy prowess is already right here, within the type of aerial units that proceed to rework real-time techniques when it comes to reconnaissance, surveillance and logistics. Ongoing conflicts in Jap Europe and Gaza proceed to point out the significance of electronics in each protection and strike capabilities.
Jack de Santis has firsthand witnessed how drones and elevated know-how can enhance a rustic’s broader navy construction. The 34-year-old drone pilot and engineer initially from Croatia lent his experience to Ukraine’s navy for about two years, between December 2022 and January 2025, to spice up technological capabilities and higher equip Ukraine in opposition to Russian aggression and retaliation.
He’s the founding father of Omira Techniques AI, described as a “subsequent technology self-healing communications system” that goals to shift centuries-old battlefield techniques to adapt to the present age of technological capabilities which have already impacted varied elements of the world.
‘Stalemate’ Prompted By Draconian Techniques
Jack de Santis had no prior navy expertise previous to risking his personal life to assist the Ukrainians in 2022, spurred by the battle within the Balkans in his house area that impacted his resolution many years later to lend his personal hand.
Whereas being inexperienced on the battlefield, he utilized his background in laptop {hardware} engineering and piloting drones to attempt to encourage navy personnel to pursue extra modern types of warfare.
The duty was maybe tougher than envisioned, with de Santis saying that within the first of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict “the forms of a standard navy got here in, and that is the place the battle actually become a stalemate.”
“There are a few issues that occurred there, aside from the change of the top of the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces that turned it right into a stalemate,” he stated. One is, within the first yr of the battle, there have been a number of missed alternatives for the Ukrainians to essentially break by and to essentially kick out the Russians earlier than the Russians managed to get their act collectively. They had been additionally very disorganized within the first yr.
“In addition they, with time, managed to construct fortified positions and entrench themselves in, which might make it lots tougher in the present day to kick them out than it will have been within the first yr. And an enormous a part of the explanation why these alternatives had been missed within the first yr was because of hesitation from Western companions.”
That insinuated hesitancy on behalf of the then-Biden administration to doubtlessly be extra aggressive, which de Santis believes was a place derived from hesitancy and hurling into World Conflict III, had additional repercussions.
There have been additionally the technical beliefs of battle that stemmed from prime navy leaders in Ukraine, a lot of whom gained their information from the Soviet Union and possess decades-old battle acumen that won’t translate effectively to the current.
“It’s actually such a stark distinction between having this trench warfare and Soviet-style techniques,” de Santis stated. “Lots of Ukrainian officers had been educated to change into officers in Moscow, in order that they have this very old skool, virtually World Conflict II-type mentality of conduct warfare.
“And on the similar time, you even have all of this drone warfare, digital warfare, and all of this high-tech stuff taking place all on the similar time, all form of mashed collectively. It’s actually fascinating at instances.”
He stated that since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian navy has been going by “an enormous inside wrestle to modernize itself” and veer away from that Soviet-era mentality. American navy personnel have additionally pushed for Ukraine to modernize its forces and change to a extra Western-style mixed arms warfare method.
“However it’s laborious to show a 65-year-old basic new methods, so to say,” de Santis stated.
‘One drawback in widespread’
Throughout his time in Ukraine, which included operating Ukraine’s White Ghost drone program and dealing with volunteer fighters generally known as the Darkish Angels, de Santis break up between preventing and dealing on know-how with the navy.
He labored on quite a few programs together with flying drones, floor drones, naval drones, digital warfare, battery and energy resolution, and radio know-how.
“However of all the issues that I labored on throughout my time in Ukraine, I actually noticed every little thing had this one drawback in widespread, and that was jamming and digital warfare,” he stated. “It was disrupting every little thing from battlefield techniques and with the ability to coordinate in actual time on the battlefield.
“That is additionally one of many greatest blockers why Ukraine [is], to illustrate, slowing down the adoption of mixed arms warfare within the Ukrainian navy. It is the shortcoming to speak on the battlefield as a result of comms are all the time jammed.”
Jamming is thought extra colloquially as deliberately interfering with enemies’ electromagnetic alerts to disrupt their communications, radar and navigation programs via sending false alerts or creating noise that infiltrates opposing forces.
“You may’t actually have a commander sitting within the again coordinating issues in actual time; you can not have the fellows who’re within the battle reporting again to command what they’re seeing, what is going on,” de Santis stated. “It makes mixed arms warfare virtually inconceivable that means.
“Additionally, different issues like calling for backup or calling for a medevac [medical evacuation] are virtually inconceivable as a result of the vast majority of the time you are continuously working. So, considered one of your guys in your unit is wounded throughout a fight operation, you’re by yourself to evacuate to at the very least the closest place from the place you possibly can obtain additional support.”
Lots of drones are actually switching to fiber optic cables because of jamming and the spectrum being so congested, he added.
Growing New Applied sciences
Omira AI was a mission embarked upon years in the past.
Brainstorming by de Santis started again in 2023, pondering what may very well be performed about jamming and elevating inside digital programs. That included conversations with the Ukrainian Army Corps of Engineers.
He got here up with a brand new methodology to speak and conduct radio broadcasting that he stated is “fully new and in contrast to another radio that has ever been constructed earlier than, each civilian and navy.”
That translated to engaged on an extra-wide spectrum, from 100 megahertz to eight gigahertz, selecting frequencies by being conscious of close by spectrums and utilizing a number of frequencies on the similar time in a redundant method.
“That is primarily based off what I recognized on the battlefield as being like the primary bottleneck of jamming know-how, and that it is how a lot energy it is advisable to jam a single frequency,” he stated. “After which the broader you wish to go together with a jammer, it will get fairly loopy fairly shortly.”
A number of the largest Russian programs are composed of a number of command vans that collectively compose an digital assault system, but he stated they’ll nonetheless solely jam about 500 megahertz of spectrum directly. Nonetheless, that’s sufficient to cowl all the bands that the U.S. navy has conventionally been allowed to make use of.
All the NATO customary radios are additionally fairly ineffective as a result of the Russians developed the know-how that covers your complete band that these radios are utilizing, he added, which is equal to frequency hopping inside a block of a totally jammed spectrum the place “you are not likely going anyplace.”
“That is the place Omira got here [from], simply as out of frustration on the battlefield, watching my drones drift away and I have been watching my buddies die as a result of they could not name for a medevac or they could not name for backup,” de Santis stated.
Advancing Tech within the U.S.
By early 2024, de Santis began networking with completely different present and retired navy personnel as a way of eliciting funding to carry networking programs to the subsequent stage of know-how readiness.
He has met with ex-U.S. Air Power service members, U.S. Army personnel, the Nationwide Guard, and even members of the CIA—the latter of whom instructed him that tech being developed by Omira and counterparts are “a number of generations forward of the rest on the market.”
That has led him into interior circles in Washington D.C., working in tandem on this newer know-how now with the U.S. authorities—receiving help from the very best ranges of the Pentagon, Division of Protection, and lawmakers in Congress.
“It took me a very long time to persuade anyone in Europe or within the U.S. that that is one thing necessary and that that is one thing that we needs to be listening to and doubtless much more consideration than drones,” he stated. “I all the time inform individuals right here, the Russians and the Chinese language invested billions and billions of {dollars} into creating their digital warfare functionality. Whereas their functionality is much less high-tech than what the U.S. has, it’s miles larger in numbers.
“Within the Russian navy, each squad mainly has a jammer with them. Each car on the battlefield has a jammer with them. And even the Ukrainians are nonetheless enjoying catch-up when it comes to digital warfare capabilities and the sheer amount of it.”
He routinely attends conferences within the states—just like the U.S. Army Nationwide Guard conferences, for instance—to forge relationships on this area. His message to companions and allies is a straightforward one: transfer quick or get left behind.
Within the U.S., digital warfare has been thought of very area of interest, high-tech and specialised. In the meantime, de Santis factors out how adversaries select to speculate lots n digital warfare once they might have taken the identical sum of money and constructed a bunch of planes or plane carriers, and many others.
“It is as a result of they understood that by denying the U.S. communication and coordination in actual time, they make our mixed arms warfare doctrine inconceivable to do,” he stated. “And that is the place issues disintegrate and we do not know battle with out mixed arms warfare.
“These are issues that the US and our allies are usually not coaching and never getting ready for in any respect. We rely a lot on coordination and communication on the battlefield, and we aren’t actually it and not likely paying consideration to what’s taking place or creating even theoretical procedures for battle in such a situation.”
Synthetic intelligence on the battlefield is one other objective, although de Santis acknowledges that he’s by no means seen AI or autonomous drones on the battlefield apart from one-off prototypes.
“I obtained to sit down down in a room with 5 generals from the Army, Air Power and Nationwide Guard [following one conference in Milwaukee] and transient them extra in depth on drone warfare and the realities of it,” he stated. “We booked one hour, we ended up talking for 3 1/2 hours.
“That was fairly surreal for me to sit down down with 5 U.S. generals and to be briefing them and sharing information with them. However this actually opened my eyes on one, how a lot we take essentially the most primary info that we take as a right in Ukraine; how a lot NATO and U.S. troops do not learn about these issues.”
He added: “It obtained me considering that with me and with my guys from Ukraine, I might actually begin placing collectively a program for coaching the U.S. navy in drone warfare as a result of we’ve got skilled every little thing from squad degree, all the best way to battalion and brigade degree.
“I labored my means up in Ukraine from drone pilot all the best way to advisor to the battalion commander for drone and digital warfare. … There may be actually lots we might educate the U.S. navy.”
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