Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013<\/strong> Years before Russia invaded Ukraine, Oleksiy Savchenko helped develop one of the most lethal and inexpensive weapons now used by thousands of Ukrainian service members.<\/p>\nIn 2014, he was among the protesters whose months-long rallies in Kyiv ultimately removed pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n
In revenge, Moscow annexed Crimea and stoked a separatist war in Ukraine\u2019s southeast. This led Savchenko, together with like-minded activists, to start a non-governmental organisation called Army SOS.<\/p>\n
The group raised money to procure flak jackets and other military gear for former protesters who volunteered to fight the separatists despite being under-equipped and barely trained.<\/p>\n
And as the group delivered the gear to the front line, the volunteers and service members asked for something they needed badly.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys, give us maps, we need maps, we only have Soviet ones from the 1980s. Where there used to be a field is now a village or an apartment building,\u201d Savchenko recalled them saying.<\/p>\n
But instead of printing thousands of pages, Army SOS went for a tech solution.<\/p>\n
They asked a group of software developers in Kyiv to install satellite maps and Ukrainian military data on tablets and smartphones.<\/p>\n
According to a Ukrainian service member who responded to the novelty in 2014, troops started seeing their surroundings better, and the tools allowed them to correct artillery more clearly and precisely.<\/p>\n
More suggestions were passed on.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you add an option to measure distance? Can we enter coordinates? Can we guide and calculate artillery fire?\u201d were the most important ones, Savchenko told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The Soviet-era way of guiding fire requires manual data entry and the use of artillery tables for calculations that take up to 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
But what Army SOS and the developers came up with changed the entire system.<\/p>\n
Named Kropiva (nettle), the software is part of a series of hi-tech equipment and weaponry that has helped to transform the Ukrainian military from a demoralised underdog to a serious force of resistance.<\/p>\n
Kropiva \u201cis an example of a private initiative and an effective use of civilian systems in the military,\u201d Pavel Luzin, a Russia-based defence analyst with the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The software turns any Android-based tablet that costs $150 or more into a basic unit of an automated precision guidance system.<\/p>\n
The tablet can acquire and transmit coordinates for correcting artillery fire from its user, a drone or a radar.<\/p>\n
It can calculate the distance to targets and direct shots of each type of artillery used in the Ukrainian military.<\/p>\n
The tablet also gets meteorological data that can affect each shot \u2013 the speed and direction of wind, temperature and humidity.<\/p>\n
If there is no web access to get in touch with command centres, the tablet can use portable radio stations.<\/p>\n
The calculations are made and transmitted within seconds \u2013 time that can save lives and destroy the enemy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fast and precise,\u201d Savchenko said sitting in the group\u2019s office in central Kyiv, crammed with boxes with new tablets and decorated with flags of Ukrainian military units signed by thankful service members.<\/p>\n
The tablet also saves lives in other ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople came to a minefield. And came out alive\u201d using a tablet with Kropiva, Antonina Baiura, a volunteer with the group, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Army SOS and the developers handed the software code over to the Ukrainian military free of charge in 2018.<\/p>\n
Competing approaches<\/h2>\n
Each tablet is like a worker bee in a hive.<\/p>\n
It contains information only about its user\u2019s immediate surroundings. If seized, the password-protected tablet can be rendered digitally dead from a server.<\/p>\n
And even if Russian or separatist service members get hold of an operating tablet, their superiors strongly recommend not to use it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne can find free cheese only in a mouse trap. The trophy Ukrainian software is such a mouse trap,\u201d a Russian military publication, Top War, warned in May.<\/p>\n
The article\u2019s anonymous author alleged that data from each tablet ends up in the United States \u2013 and that entering Russian maps will provide the enemy with crucial information.<\/p>\n
The publication also lamented the absence of similar software in the Russian military.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if such software exists, it hasn\u2019t been supplied to front-line military units,\u201d the author concluded.<\/p>\n
This conclusion underlines the evolutionary difference between the ways Russia and Ukraine develop new weaponry.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex is mired in corruption and ineffectiveness, along with inflated budgets and an opaque contracting system, analysts say.<\/p>\n
A Kropiva is barely possible in Russia because its military-industrial complex \u201cis too clumsy and is burdened by the mass of intelligence officers that live off it as parasites,\u201d analyst Luzin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalogues [of Kropiva] are possible, but they will be many times more expensive and far less useful and effective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Transparency reforms<\/h2>\n
Ukraine has also inherited a chunk of the Soviet military-industrial complex.<\/p>\n
More than a hundred arms developers and producers form Ukroboronprom, a state-run conglomerate, where corruption was so notorious that it prompted criticism from Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt serves no purpose for Ukraine to fight for its body in Donbas if it loses its soul to corruption,\u201d Rex Tillerson, the then-US secretary of state, said in 2016.<\/p>\n
These days, Ukroboronprom is undergoing a painful transition to transparency as its plants and research bureaus are targeted by Russian cruise missiles.<\/p>\n
Unlike their adversaries, the Ukrainian military prefers not to trumpet brand-new, domestically-developed weaponry.<\/p>\n
The defence ministry even urged Army SOS to stay away from mass media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military asked us to get off the radar and not to be in the limelight,\u201d Savchenko said. \u201cBut they don\u2019t have an answer to [our] question about where we would get the money to fund the projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Savchenko, articles about his initiative have previously led to donations.<\/p>\n
These funds have already helped buy thousands of tablets and smartphones, and there is a waiting line of up to four days for service members who want Kropiva installed on their devices.<\/p>\n
Army SOS protects the identities of its volunteers, software developers and the service members who use Kropiva.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just a talking head. If I get killed, the process will go on,\u201d Savchenko said.<\/p>\n
The volunteers around him are civilians who never planned to work with the military \u2013 and will return to their daily lives after the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe end the war with a victory,\u201d he said, \u201cand go back to our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv, Ukraine \u2013 Years before Russia invaded Ukraine, Oleksiy Savchenko helped develop one of the most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n
How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-26T10:30:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"111\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2022-08-26T10:30:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":452,"height":111,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News","datePublished":"2022-08-26T10:30:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005"},"wordCount":1080,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Top Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005","name":"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-08-26T10:30:35+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2005#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons | Russia-Ukraine war News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}