Russia Officially Introduces New Branch of the Armed Forces: Unmanned Systems Forces
Yesterday Russia officially established its Unmanned Systems Forces as a new separate branch of the Armed Forces.
The Unmanned Systems Troops have been created in the Russian Armed Forces, announced the deputy head of the new branch of troops.
The head of the unmanned systems troops has already been appointed, military command bodies have been formed at all levels, and regular regiments, battalions, and other units have been assembled.
Combat operations of UAV units are conducted according to a unified plan and in coordination with other units.
👱♀️The Ministry of Defense showed the emblem of the unmanned systems troops in two videos — crossed arrow and sword with a winged microchip and a star at the intersection.
From the above, pay particular attention to this section, which will become important later: “Combat operations of UAV units are conducted according to a unified plan and in coordination with other units.”
As mentioned, the new emblem has been unveiled, which shows an arrow and sword under a microchip:
It has garnered some controversy on pro-Russian channels, as they believe the microchip to be a poor design choice and that it should have instead been a symbol from more traditional heraldry.
One analyst notes:
Regarding the emblem of the unmanned systems troops.
The golden double-headed eagle with outstretched wings placed on it (similar to the State Emblem, but with differences in details) symbolizes statehood, unity, and sovereignty. There are no questions here. Nor are there any questions regarding the arrow and sword, which refer to attacking and destroying the enemy. However, the presence of a microchip, in our opinion, looks controversial. It would be appropriate here to place some Christian symbol like Saint George the Victorious (the fight against evil, tyranny, etc.). Or you could take an even simpler path — borrow the heraldry from an already existing structure: the Directorate for the Construction and Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems. The latter looks as stately and beautiful as possible, since it also features a scepter — a symbol connecting earth and sky and referring to the fact that drone operators control the sky while working from the ground.
A clearer version:
Before we get to the deeper analysis, another interesting point from the announcement video above is that we get one of our first ever glimpses of the Russian ASTRAS program in use—click the photos below to expand:
It was immediately covered by Ukrainian outlets, noting that ASTRAS is Russia’s equivalent to Ukraine’s long-running DELTA system which I myself covered here with the massive ‘Delta leaks’ that had occurred in 2023.
Virtually nothing is known of it, but most can be assumed and surmised, as the above article does:
ASTRAS, judging by the published images, has an interface similar to civilian messengers. The system probably supports text chats, voice communication, and possibly file sharing.
It is not yet known who exactly developed ASTRAS, but it is likely that we are talking about one of the state or affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry IT structures.
In short, it is a unified battlefield command and management architecture for integrating various units, commands, C4ISR assets, etc., for the ‘network-centric’ facilitation of carrying out timely OODA loops and kill-chains.
Now recall the earlier: “Combat operations of UAV units are conducted according to a unified plan and in coordination with other units.”
Here is where it all comes together. A recent Ukrainian write-up describes Russia’s major success in utilizing these latest tactics of drone integration during assaults in particular:
