Crowdfunded Ukrainian satellite has helped to destroy over 7,000 russian targets

During five months of use, the ICEYE spacecraft, which was bought with donations from Ukrainians, helped identify and destroy thousands of pieces of russian equipment.

Rubryka reports, referring to the Defense Intelligence at Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, that Ukrainian military intelligence began using the "people's satellite" on September 24, 2022.

Since then, the state's Security and Defense Forces have received the necessary intelligence from space.

During the five months of use of ICEYE, Ukrainian intelligence officers "conducted space radar reconnaissance of almost 1,000 areas where units of the aggressor state are located in temporarily occupied and other territories that were of interest to the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

During this time, the resource of the spacecraft discovered 360 tents in locations of the russian occupation army's deployment, as well as 7,321 objects of enemy military and special equipment, in particular:

• 45 jets;
• 27 helicopters;
• Six 9K720 Iskander short-range ballistic missile systems;
• 36 S300 air defense systems;
• 12 Pantsyr S1 air defense systems;
• 11 radar stations;
• 10 pontoon crossings.

"Thanks to the capabilities of ICEYE, a significant part of this list has been destroyed and reflected in the daily summaries of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the intelligence emphasized.

The employees of the Ukrainian military intelligence thanked the entire Ukrainian society, which joined the fundraising for the space vehicle, every volunteer who assists the defenders of Ukraine every day, and the Serhii Prytula Charity Foundation.

"Such eyes in orbit make it possible to detect and burn camouflaged russian military equipment, weapons, and personnel 24 hours a day and in any weather," the intelligence noted.

Reference

On August 18, 2022, Ukrainian TV presenter and volunteer Serhii Prytula announced that his fund bought a satellite for 600 million hryvnias raised by Ukrainians and access to a database of satellite images for the Ukrainian army for more than a year.

ICEYE satellites carry out imaging with the help of synthesized aperture radar (SAR), which allows the scanning of objects at any time of the day and under any weather conditions. Thanks to the automatic recognition of objects using a distributed radar image and digital signal processing, SAR systems can "see" through obstacles. That is, even the walls of buildings are not an obstacle to this system.