The technological race during the Russian-Ukrainian war is forcing both sides to look for new solutions to ensure the operation of unmanned systems. One of the directions of such a search is navigation in conditions when neither satellite communications nor radio communications work. There are already ideas on how to solve this problem.
Any Kiev driver can tell you how much a modern person depends on online navigation. Especially the one whose smartphone insistently shows that he is in Lima, Peru, instead of the capital’s Borshchagovka.
This is how spoofing works—substituting false satellite coordinates. Often the satellite signal is simply blocked.
During the war, both in Ukraine and in Russia, jamming and substitution of satellite and mobile signals are used en masse, and not only in areas of military installations. Entire regions may suffer from such actions.
This is done in order to confuse or completely disable navigation devices installed on missiles and drones.
Unable to accurately determine their own location, they cannot navigate in space, which usually results in them missing their target or falling to the ground.
The search for a new navigation system
Modern warfare is gradually moving away from the concept in which a drone is constantly controlled by an operator through a stable radio channel, Major Igor Bogdan, head of the center for innovation and technology of the 7th Corps of the Airborne Assault Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, explains to BBC News Ukraine.
The only way out is to increase the autonomy of unmanned systems, including in matters of navigation.
According to Bogdan, a promising solution is a combination of several independent navigation methods: an inertial system, high-precision cameras with computer vision algorithms, as well as other on-board sensors from which the system constantly receives information and determines its location.
It is especially important to develop visual navigation and computer vision. In the absence of GPS, the drone can navigate based on data from these two functions.
Another promising direction is the creation of mesh networks for the overall system of operation of drones, which “communicate” with each other, interacting with each other, receiving and transmitting radio signals.
This technology is actively used by Russia to attack the northern and western regions of Ukraine with its drones, such as Shahed jets.
However, these are all expensive and complex alternative navigation systems.
In addition, visual navigation depends on weather conditions, notes Adviser to the President of Ukraine on technological issues Sergei Beskrestnov (call sign “Flash”).
The most promising, in his opinion, is navigation through inhomogeneities in the Earth's magnetic field. The world's leading companies are now working on this technology, but it is not yet ready for mass production, he emphasizes.
But there is another system - simple, cheap and effective.
It was invented almost 100 years ago for conventional aircraft, but now it has proven useful for unmanned aircraft.
What are navigation beacons
We are talking about the so-called “beacon network”.
The idea is quite simple: if the enemy jams the signal coming from above from GNSS satellites (Global Navigation Satellite System - a global navigation satellite system that allows you to determine the exact coordinates, speed and time for any object on Earth), it is necessary to create points that would transmit such a signal from below.
To do this, special small devices - radio beacons - are installed or dropped from the air in a certain area. Their coordinates are known, so when a drone flies through this area, it receives data from several beacons about their coordinates and the time it takes for the signal to reach the receiver.
Next comes the usual geometry: having data on the distance to the beacons and height above the ground, the drone calculates its own position in space.
This technology began to be tested at the front for individual UAV missions several years ago, but its use may become much wider in the near future.
For example, it is precisely this technology that allows Ukrainian drones to fly over Russian territory in the absence of a satellite signal.
In December 2025, Russia announced it was testing a prototype of its own “high-precision” satellite-free navigation system called Ariadne.
It is built on a network of beacons, which, according to the developers, make it possible to determine the location with an error of up to 15–20 cm. That is, the declared accuracy should be eight times higher than that of GPS.
According to Flash, this system continues to develop, and Russia is now considering the possibility of installing it on both Shaheds and KABs and missiles.
The system will allow Russian drones to navigate at a depth of up to 100 km in Ukraine.
“And this is actually an opportunity to deliver precise strikes on a huge part of Ukraine,” Flash notes.
Ukraine is also working on its own navigation system based on beacons.
At least in July 2026, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Andrei Lebedenko, reported that the pilot project of the “lighthouse network” had shown its effectiveness in the Sumy and Kharkov regions.
According to him, the network showed good results, so it was decided to scale it to the entire territory of Ukraine.
Once deployed, the system is expected to assist not only drones, but also small aircraft, interceptor drones and various sensors used by the Defense Forces.
Work in progress
According to BBC sources in the leadership of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, several manufacturers are developing their own navigation systems based on beacons.
Some of them, such as Sine.Engineering and Vyriy Industries, have already publicly talked about their projects.
Moreover, Russian specialized Telegram channels reported that in 2025–2026, Sine.Link radio beacons produced by Sine.Engineering were found in the occupied territories and even in Russia.
Andrey Chulik, co-founder and CEO of Sine.Engineering, told the BBC that he could not comment on the matter “due to the high sensitivity of the topic and security risks.”
However, he confirmed that his company has been working on the beacon network “regularly and for quite some time now.”
“The beacon network is an extremely important project for the country that can support and enhance drone missions along the entire front line. This is what we call a technological advantage: an entire infrastructure within which our solutions in both communication and navigation can work truly effectively,” Chulik said.
In his opinion, the creation of such a network is “a fundamental project for the country.”
One of the company’s promising developments is a system called Pasika. Based on Sine.Link radio modules, it will allow groups of drones to be automatically delivered to a given area in radio silence mode, even in conditions of suppressed or complete absence of satellite signal.
The enemy will neither be able to detect such an autonomous “swarm of drones” in advance nor effectively intercept it. When the group arrives in a given area, control of the drones is taken over by an operator who can assign them the necessary targets. The drones return to their original position autonomously.
“The future, in my opinion, is not simply about finding one technology that will 'replace GPS'. We are talking about creating a sustainable multi-level navigation infrastructure that will allow unmanned systems to perform tasks even in conditions where GNSS is unavailable or unreliable,” Chulik noted.
Combat tests
Therefore, for now this technology is used mainly for logistics and reconnaissance missions. It not only allows you to work without satellite communications, but also ensures that the drone returns “home” autonomously.
Among the problems, Eduard Lysenko names difficulties with installing the beacons themselves. In difficult conditions, the military must place these devices at great distances from each other and on high points - trees, towers, masts - as well as periodically change batteries and perform other maintenance work.
“In the future, we plan, if everything goes well, to deploy our own network of beacons so that they work autonomously and units do not have to install them themselves, because this is also a problem. The greater the distance between the beacons, the higher the accuracy,” explains the development director.
As for missions on Russian territory, he said, if a beacon is installed near the border on the Ukrainian side, it will be able to provide UAV navigation at a distance of up to 100 km. This is sufficient for some missions behind enemy lines.
“Beacons are installed on our territory, but the aircraft flies into enemy territory. This allows the drone to fly there [to Russian territory - Ed.] and retain the ability to navigate, albeit with a certain error," says Lysenko.
