Russia
12
www.criticalcomms.com November 2019
the hover area for drone recharging
over the station is usually between
three and 10 metres. There is no need
for any human intervention, which
Plekhanov hopes will ease staffing and
recruitment issues in remote locations.
GET opted for an all-weather
transmission, since plug-in systems
traditionally struggled in the presence
of rain, snow and dust. A drone can
be recharged to full power within six
minutes, which is typically faster than
landing a device and taking off again.
GET’s system can use any power
source – but Plekhanov recommends
15kW to operate at full power level.
From the power management generator,
the power is transmitted using an
antenna, establishing a sort of magnetic
field that the drone is manoeuvred into.
The company is now waiting to secure a
commercial electricity licence in the US
to sell its system commercially there. It
was given a temporary licence by the
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) last December to carry out trials.
The prospect for UAVs in the
Arctic has already attracted defence
manufacturer Kalashnikov, which
recently developed two patrol drones to
survey the waters along the Northern
Sea Route (NSR), mostly in close
proximity to oil and gas installations.
These machines are derived from the
Zala Aero drones and adapted for
extremely low temperatures and highwind
conditions. Russia’s Foundation
for Advanced Research Projects,
which is focused on the development
of emerging military technologies, is
building a UAV intended for use in the
Arctic and capable of staying in the air
for four days.
Russia’s vessels are designed to
navigate without the use of global
satellite-based navigation systems, as
these are notoriously unreliable in the
polar region. On that basis the drones
use a newly developed technology,
named GIRSAM, in the absence of
GLONASS and GPS signals. The
drones are capable of identifying and
gathering information about ships
up to 100km away (surpassing the
operational range of ground-based
equipment) and their primary function
will be to ensure the safety of sea
shipping and uninterrupted defence of
the perimeter, according to Kalashnikov
Group CEO Vladimir Dmitriyev.
The drones can be used to relay
information about ice conditions, a
feature likely to become increasingly
valuable as shipping along the route
continues to grow rapidly. The
developments follow a pattern of
upgrading and reopening of Russian
security installations across the Arctic
along the NSR. In 2017, Russia
established its Trefoil military base
on the Franz Josef Land archipelago,
and by January this year had nearly
completed its new Northern Fleet base
close to Tiksi in the Laptev Sea. Drones
are easily managed from a permanent
facility such as this, but can also be
operated from customised all-weather
modules based on six-metre-long
shipping containers.
The development of such systems will
be of critical importance for operation
in the Arctic as the Russian Federation
continues to expand its submarine
fleet (six new vessels will become
active in 2020, the most in a single
year since the collapse of the Soviet
Union). In addition, Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUV) could be
set for the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Rob Huebert, associate professor at
the University of Calgary and a senior
research fellow with the Centre for
Military and Strategic Studies, reckons
AUVs will become an important issue
in the region as the Chinese also look to
design and deploy submarines of their
own with an under-the-ice capability.
Carving out a niche
A limiting factor for the Russian critical
communications market is that LTE
networks need frequency spectrum,
which is scarce, and LTE equipment
is relatively expensive. In addition,
the integration of features needed by
the critical communications industry
into commercial LTE equipment (for
example, multipoint communication
and priority calls) is moving
slowly. TCCA Board chair Mladen
Vratonjić says TETRA could see full
decommissioning by around 2030, but
many of his peers disagree.
MarketsandMarkets estimates
worldwide critical communications
to be worth $14bn today, projected
to reach $20bn by 2024. One of the
smaller firms looking to tap into that
market – and often found pitching to
Russian customers – is Mentura Group,
which has been selling its TETRAbased
Role Oriented Communications
Server (ROCS) as a solution for airports
with the aim of smoothly integrating
field functions, task dispatching and
staff reachability (reducing costs
by minimising unnecessary delays
in aircraft turnaround). Inevitably,
this tough market continues to be
dominated by international giants such
as Ericsson, Siemens, Cisco Systems,
Avanti and Honeywell.
The work of GET and Airbus’s
partners in particular demonstrate how
smaller vendors and resellers (VARs)
can benefit by concentrating on delivery
methods in extreme climatic conditions
or difficult geography – as well as
targeting second- or third-tier Russian
cities as the 5G era approaches. Critical
communications can also be conducted
via private LTE networks (MSSpetsTelecom
used to work on TETRA
only but has reinvented itself as an
MVNO based on Tele2’s LTE-450
network, offering converged services).
Mentura’s managing director, Sami
Honkaniemi, thinks the importance
of voice gives TETRA lasting appeal,
even if some customers seek to add
broadband for video-streaming.
One outcome is certain, though –
that Russia’s critical communications
market is set to become far more
sophisticated in the near future, and
there will be plenty of contracts up
for negotiation.
The drones can be used to relay
information about ice
conditions, a feature likely to become
increasingly valuable
The appeal
of drones is
increasing given
the danger that
global warming
poses to Russia’s
oil and gas sector
Adobe Stock/ver0nicka
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