As artillery continues to inflict casualties on both sides, technology is increasingly becoming a powerful weapon that can cause significant damage on the ground. SOS Army, a volunteer organization founded on March 1, 2014, has developed an application that allows the Ukrainian army to know exactly where Moscow’s troops are. An important asset in what is already considered the most technological war ever.
In the Kiev office, covered with the flags of the countries that support the project around the world and with dozens of army decorations, one of the volunteers explains how the software called “Kropyva” works. With a tablet in his hand, he enlarges and reduces the geographic drawing of Ukraine with the help of his fingers.
“Here we have the map of Bakhmut, where the most intense fighting is currently taking place. Our application allows the Ukrainian army to identify the exact position of Russian troops and transmit coordinates to our artillery.”
Dozens of small green crosses appear in a row on the screen, representing the Russian artillery. In addition to developing the application, which has already been downloaded more than 100,000 times, SOS Army also trains the army and sends tablets to the front lines. In total, it has shipped more than 30,000.
Aircraft provide information
To access information, SOS Army created the “Valkyrie”, an unmanned aerial vehicle that records the position of the Russian army using cameras.
“The Valkyrie can fly far. It’s not a simple drone, not even a DJI or Mavic. It can fly 10, 20 or 30 kilometers. The artillery it finds fires at 10, 20 or 27 kilometers our way. It’s artillery systems caliber that cause very great damage to our army,” explains Anna Morozova.
According to the head of the volunteer team of the SOS army, there are about 500 flying aircraft in the Ukrainian skies, which are difficult to shoot down because of their speed. “To shoot down a Valkyrie it is necessary to use missile systems like those of the Kremlin, that is, the [sistema de mísseis] TOR may work, but any conventional anti-aircraft system will not. Even if the Valkyrie is shot down, it will already have caused great damage to the Russian Federation. Each missile can cost $100,000, while a single Valkyrie costs between $6,000 and $7,000.
motivated army
The technological weapon that the SOS army put into service with the Ukrainian army earned the association the award of Chief of Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny. Anna Morozova cannot state how much artillery the “Kropyva” has already shot down, but guarantees that it received very positive feedback from the army.
In addition to the IT resources, the volunteer believes that the Ukrainian army is much better equipped than any other, due to the experience that has lasted almost nine years. “Our armed forces have something to defend. Most of them are highly motivated. No army has the experience of aggression so intense, so hard. But the most important thing, of course, is the motivation itself.”
Source: DN
