When will the Remote Controlled Vehicle Command be established in the Turkish Army?

After the Cold War, the concept of war has moved far away from its classical structure. As a result of current developments, in addition to the concepts of nuclear war and conventional war, many definitions of war such as fourth generation war, war on terror, preventive war and hybrid war have emerged.

In the last days of February 2022, after 34 of our soldiers were martyred by Russian/Syrian aircraft in Syria, this change began to gain a new dimension. From then on, new doctrines and concepts emerged not only in the concept of war, but also in the execution of war.

The first of these was the use of UAVs and UCAVs. Because the Turkish army, which wanted to respond to this grim attack, decided to use UAVs and UCAVs in an unprecedented way, due to the difficulties that could be caused by flying aircraft into Syrian airspace controlled by Russia and the USA.

UAVs and UCAVs were not newly invented devices. Previously, however, they were mainly used for reconnaissance, attacking point targets and marking targets for aircraft. Unlike their previous use, the Turkish military has used UAVs and UCAVs in multi-dimensional missions and on a mass scale.

In this use, UAVs were used for target acquisition and forward surveillance for artillery, missile/rocket and mortar units. They were also used for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance missions. UCAVs, on the other hand, attacked ground targets en masse like air force aircraft.

UCAVs fired at Syria's air defence systems, logistics facilities, command posts, tanks, artillery, ground-based aircraft and helicopters, armoured vehicles and even infantry units, large and small, and successfully neutralised them. This was so effective that the Syrian army was forced to take shelter under buildings, in bunkers and pits out of fear.

According to the media and social media, the Syrian army suffered heavy casualties as a result of this operation. When the same methods were successfully applied against Haftar forces in Libya, this situation attracted the attention of the whole world. As a result, many countries took the decision to add a large number of UAVs and UCAVs to their military inventories.

The correctness of this decision was clearly demonstrated in the Second Karabakh War. Azerbaijan, which has a large number of UAVs and UCAVs in its army, used them effectively in collecting instant intelligence. This usage maximised the situational awareness of the Azerbaijani army.

On the other hand, since the UAVs also carried out forward surveillance, artillery, mortar and rocket firing caused great casualties by providing accurate hits to Armenian positions. The Armenian artillery and missile units identified in the images obtained were hit by UCAVs and fire support vehicles. This situation caused the Armenians to run out of firepower.

More importantly, UCAVs hit all moving Armenian tanks, armoured vehicles and motor vehicles. So much so that Armenian soldiers did not dare to board tanks and armoured and wheeled vehicles. As a result, many tanks, armoured and wheeled vehicles were captured intact by the Azerbaijani army. Since UCAVs were also used against mass infantry targets, Armenian troops were unable to shelter and move in positions.

Although they did not attract enough attention, Israeli-made HAROP kamikaze drones were also very effective, as were UAVs and UCAVs. However, since most of the Armenian targets were hit by Turkish-made UCAVs, the world's attention was focused on UCAVs. Therefore, when the Ukrainian War broke out, the Ukrainian army, whose air force was no match for Russia, used Turkish UCAVs.

The Ukrainians were quite successful in this. They even composed songs for Turkish UCAVs due to their success. But as the war dragged on, the situation began to change. Because UAVs and UCAVs, although difficult to detect, could be destroyed by air defence weapons when they were detected. The loss of UCAVs, which are not very expensive but not cheap either, meant a great economic loss. It also took a long time to procure new ones.

Therefore, they turned to cheaper devices. Firstly, they used US kamikaze drones similar to HAROP. Good results were obtained from these, but they were also difficult to procure. Their cost was also not very cheap. Thereupon, civilian-purpose drones (FPV) started to be used in the battlefield. Over time, civilian drones have become the most widely used drones.

Civilian drones had many advantages. First of all, they were very cheap. In addition, they were easily available in every country and could even be produced locally. On the other hand, since they were used at short distances and flying low, they were more difficult to detect and destroy.

When successful results were obtained on land, remote-controlled devices began to be used at sea. Ukraine, which initially shot down many large and small Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea with Turkish UCAVs, modified drones and vehicles such as jet skis and small boats over time and used them as remote-controlled floating attack vehicles. As a result, it broke the power of the Russian Black Sea fleet and rendered Russian ships immobile.

After that, they used drones and remotely operated naval vehicles against logistics facilities, naval bases and even the bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the mainland. On land, FPVs were also used against Russian troops in positions, with considerable success. In addition to the use of drones and UUVs (unmanned maritime vehicles) in the air and at sea, small caterpillar vehicles travelling on land have also been successfully used against Russian vehicles and positions by placing explosives on them.

In response to this, Ukraine has focused even more on this issue. In early 2024, Ukrainian President Zelenski said: ‘I have signed a decree that will initiate the establishment of a drone unit within our armed forces. Drone systems have shown that they are effective on land, in the air and at sea.’ There were many factors that pushed Ukraine to take such a decision.

It is possible to summarise some of them as follows:

Suicide attacks by remotely piloted vehicles are the most difficult attacks to counter, whether by air, land or sea. This is because it is almost impossible to completely disable the vehicle before it approaches its target and releases its explosives or hits and damages the target. Although recently introduced tools and weapons such as automatic shotguns, machine guns and signal jammers are partially useful, there is no weapon that can be used to completely prevent these attacks.

Moreover, even if such measures detect and neutralise most of the devices used in remote-controlled suicide attacks, this does not pose a major problem for the attacker. Because these devices are very cheap, hundreds or even thousands of them are purchased and used, and some of them certainly fulfil their mission.

Since these vehicles are crewless, they eliminate the errors and uncertainties that can be caused by the human element and can be used very effectively. The destruction of tanks and armoured vehicles worth millions of dollars and the sinking of ships, some of which are worth billions of dollars, with these very low-cost devices create a huge asymmetric effect.

In recent days, there has not been much news and video on the use of UCAVs in the conflicts in Ukraine. Since Russian ships have withdrawn from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, naval attacks have also decreased. However, the use of FPVs continues to increase day by day. It is even possible to say that only FPVs are now used for suicide attacks. Following the successes achieved, not only Ukraine but also Russia uses them.

So, what is this FPV drone?

An FPV drone is equipped with a forward-facing camera that transmits a video image to the operator and displays it on a handheld screen. FPV drones are not simple civilian drones that anyone can use. They are produced as action and speed drones. They have long been used in civilian drone races and for filming action scenes in films.

For this reason, a certain training is required for their use. However, this training does not require a long training process such as training pilots. Users can easily learn to fly these drones with the help of simulators that can provide an experience similar to that of professional pilots.

However, despite all these advantages and their widespread use in Ukraine, FPV drones are still in their infancy as a standard weapon of war. For this reason, they are not yet part of the inventory of a specific unit of any army. Ukraine has announced that it will establish its first drone unit, but it is not yet known whether it has done so.

It is also known that drones are used in many units in Turkey. It has been publicised that micro drones were used at squad level in trench operations, and drones were also given to operational units. However, these drones were generally used for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. There has been no news in the press about the use of drones for offensive purposes.

On the contrary, there are reports that drones with explosives planted on them by the PKK/PYD terrorist organisation were used to attack our troops. However, these drones were not very effective, probably due to misuse or because the signal interrupters in our troops made it impossible to control the drone.

There have been some news in the press that some of our companies have developed a system that can hit the target even if the drones are out of contact with the command centre, and that can allocate and neutralise targets to other drones according to the commands of a leader drone. Since the information about this work, called the swarm drone system, was suddenly cut off, it is not known what the status of the developments is.

In the light of this information, it is considered that it is imperative for the Turkish army to carry out some systematic studies on the use of UAVs, UCAVs and drones. Because it is understood that UAVs, UCAVs and drones will be used effectively and widely in battlefields for a long time to come.

The work to be carried out should start with the clarification of the organisational structure. These vehicles should be categorised according to their types, intended use and size. As in the case of aeroplanes and helicopters, it should be determined which of these vehicles will be under the control of the air force and which will be under the control of the naval and air forces.

After this determination, responsibilities should be determined for the technical and tactical training of the personnel who will use these vehicles, and these personnel should be graduated with a certificate of authorisation at the end of their training. Most importantly, doctrines on the use of these vehicles should be determined and added to the instructions. Existing concepts should be reorganised taking into account the use of these vehicles.