How the Russians made their "Gerans" even more dangerous and why the new system works better during the day

The Russians have upgraded the Geran-5 strike drones by adding a system that helps them navigate even without satellite navigation and makes them more resistant to electronic warfare. Defense Express reports this, citing the Telegram channel "Colonel of the General Staff," UNN writes.

Details

The new modification was called the "Geran-5 K5." A "Susanin" module was identified on it — a DSMAC electro-optical navigation system. It compares images of the terrain from the drone’s camera with reference satellite images and uses them to determine its coordinates.

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Thanks to this, the drone can continue navigating even in the absence of a satellite signal. At the same time, DSMAC is not a full-fledged replacement for satellite navigation because of its lower accuracy and essentially serves as a backup system.

Why the Geran navigates better during the day

The operation of DSMAC depends heavily on how well the camera can "see" the terrain. Accuracy is affected by lighting, the season, and even the length of shadows at different times of day. At night, the system performs noticeably worse if there is no additional lighting or specialized image processing.

The technology itself is not new. The Russians use a similar system on Kh-101 cruise missiles, while systems of this type first appeared earlier on American Tomahawks.

At the same time, Ukraine also uses similar solutions. In particular, navigation systems of this type are installed on Ukrainian medium- and long-range strike drones.

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