Millions of Russians yesterday received a notification from the country's main government portal inviting them to download an app to report incidents involvingo security with a focus on drone attacks. The warning contained in the notification reads: “Contribute to the fight against drones! The Radar app can be used to report suspicious drones or other terrorist emergencies“. The news was reported by WP.
A similar application has been operating successfully in Ukraine for almost a year, with residents helping the country's forces track and prevent attacks by Russian drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian application, called ePPO, an acronym for “electronic air defense”, is based on the phone's GPS and compass. To report a sighting, the user must point their device at the incoming object and press a large red button, which immediately alerts the military to its location.
The interface of the Radar is almost identical to that of the ePPO. The user just has to point the phone at an object and then choose “drone”, “missile”, “explosion”…. or “unknown” and click send.
The Radar application was developed by activists from the All-Russia Popular Front, a patriotic organization created by President Vladimir Putin as an auxiliary to the United Russia political party.
The app is available to Android users on Google Play and RuStore, a government-developed application marketplace, but not on the App Store, where applications must go through Apple's review process before being published.
The organization instead developed a bot on the messaging app Telegram called Cyber Squad, where iPhone users can submit reports. The Radar application was officially presented in mid-August.
The developers said it was downloaded more than 50.000 times in the following month and that the reports it received helped Russia shoot down two drones over the Bryansk region.
The app's developers argue, however, that many more users are needed to better protect Russia's skies.
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