MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - The Russian Defense Ministry is monitoring the development of foreign unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) and is improving relevant countermeasures, Russian Radio-Electronic Forces Commander Lieut. General Yury Lastochkin said in response to a question about the Turkish Bayraktar combat drones.
"We are aware of the current trends in the development of foreign robotic weapons and are improving our countermeasures," Lastochkin said in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.
"It's true that modern military [unmanned aerial vehicles] UAVs are an effective system capable of conducting electronic and optical-electronic reconnaissance, tracking down and highlighting targets, and using missile weapons on their own," he said.
"Electronic warfare targets radio-electronic systems of any type of basing, and UAVs are a tip of this iceberg. The thing is that UAVs are unable to accomplish their missions without the support provided by vast infrastructure, which includes takeoff and landing support systems, ground-based and air-based control posts, data gathering systems, ground-based and space radio communication, and navigation systems. And this is our area, so to say," Lastochkin said.