Does Russia have another manufacturer of “Kometa”? New antenna found on a Shahed near Poltava

A new antenna to protect navigation signals was found on the Shahed drone that attacked Poltava. Presumably, Russia has another manufacturer of Kometa.

Photos with the wreckage of the new version were posted by radio technology specialist Serhii Flash.

The new configuration of the adaptive antenna array has eight antenna systems.

This antenna provides a high level of jamming of electronic warfare signals and can simultaneously neutralize several sources of interference.

Thus, the Russians respond to the Ukrainian build-up of electronic warfare equipment by strengthening their countermeasures technology.

Previously, Russian drones have been observed with 8 or even 16 antenna elements, but they had a different shape.

Even at the beginning of the full-scale war, the Russians began installing Kometa antenna arrays on drones to protect them from satellite communications jamming.

Initially, they had 4 antenna elements, but then they went up to 8, which they began to install even on planning and correction modules for aircraft bombs.

The manufacturer of Kometa, VNIIR-Progress, is located in Cheboksary and is part of the ABS Electro group of companies. It is not unlikely that the production of adaptive arrays in the new configuration was launched at the new enterprise.

In March of this year, a Chinese 16-element CRPA antenna was found on one of the drones used against Ukrainian electronic warfare.

A CRPA antenna is a special navigation antenna that can provide high-quality positioning of a drone in space even in the conditions of active radio interference by the enemy.

Such antennas detect false electronic signals and help to ignore them. As a result, the EW does not affect the drone’s navigation, and it flies clearly to the target.