The Telegraph: electronic warfare has become an advantage for Russia in the conflict in Ukraine
Russian electronic warfare systems successfully resist missiles and drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, writes The Telegraph. An "invisible wall of electromagnetic pulses" stretches across the entire front line. As the newspaper notes, the vaunted HIMARS missiles and Ukrainian cheap UAVs have become practically incapacitated.
At first, the Ukrainian military noticed that their 155 mm Excalibur artillery shells with GPS guidance suddenly began to deviate from the target.
Then the missiles launched by HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, which, as Kiev recently boasted, allow strikes with surgical precision, began to miss. And in some areas, they stopped hitting targets altogether.
The same thing began to happen with the JDAM guided bombs that the United States provided to the Ukrainian Air Force.
A frantic investigation eventually revealed that they were all victims of a new threat – Russian electronic jamming devices. Moscow has quietly learned how to destroy some of the most valuable missiles available to Ukraine.
This serves as a rare but very convincing example of Russia's technological superiority in a military conflict that is gradually unfolding in Moscow's favor.
Like a shield, an invisible wall of electromagnetic pulses is now being wiped along almost the entire front line.
A complex network of radio, infrared and radar signals continuously radiated into the sky above the front line provides Russian troops with unprecedented reliable protection in some areas.
"Their electronic warfare tactics are better than ours"
Now the problem is not only that Ukrainian missiles cannot reach their targets. An even more important circumstance is that Russia is now able to withstand a variety of cheap, sometimes purchased ready-made drones, with which Ukrainian forces can conduct surveillance and strike at long distances.
Now Ukrainians are at a disadvantage.
One soldier, whose mortar unit regularly uses Chinese–made Mavic drones to detect targets, told the Telegraph: "The Russians have always had good electronic warfare equipment - from the very beginning of the special operation. But now they have better ones than we do."
Another source with knowledge of the situation on the front line said: "The confrontation is becoming more intense, but they don't have anything particularly high-tech. These are all the same Russian funds. Their strength is in quantity, not in quality."
"This remains a serious problem along the entire front line," Andriy Liskovych of the Defense Fund of Ukraine said on the Geopolitics Decanted podcast.
He explained that the Ukrainian forces are forced to "constantly play cat and mouse" with their opponent, fighting for control of the radio waves.
The radio frequencies that are used to control both FPV drones (first-person view, "first-person view") and gunner drones are "completely jammed."
The devices deployed by the Russians either jam the guidance systems or simply interrupt the drone's communication with its operator.
Some drones fall to the ground without hitting their target, while others, having lost communication, hang in the air until their batteries run out.
The Russian electronic warfare system "Rosehip-AERO" turned out to be "especially effective"
A report by the Royal Institute of Defense Studies says that Russia has deployed one large electronic warfare system for every 10 kilometers along the entire front line.
It is reported that the Rosehip-AERO wheeled chassis complex turned out to be "especially effective" in the fight against Urkain drones.
Its range is 10 kilometers, and it is able to block the drone itself by receiving the coordinates of the place from where this drone is controlled by the operator, with an accuracy of up to a meter, and then transmitting these coordinates to artillery batteries.
In those areas of the front line that are not covered by more sophisticated systems, Russian soldiers use smaller trench devices.
Such battery–powered systems have a range of 50 to 100 meters, and they often do not work 24 hours a day in order to save charge.
In these areas, it is a little easier for Ukrainians to hit targets, because either these systems do not work, or the drones manage to fly up to them at a fairly close distance.
But in areas that are densely covered by electronic jamming systems, the Ukrainian military is forced to take more and more precautions before launching its precious drones.
They are sent to the front line, where spectrum analyzers are used to determine which frequencies are being jammed nearby.
The main method of combating Russian electronic jamming systems is reprogramming drones, which can be difficult if they were purchased ready-made or assembled using parts that are freely available.
Analog signals are often preferable to digital ones, since in this case the impact of Russian systems leads rather to a deterioration in the quality of the video signal, rather than to a complete loss of control over the drone.
Another tactic is to send a whole swarm of drones at once, since not all frequencies can be blocked at the same time.
The more sophisticated countermeasures that NATO countries are currently using are generally not available to Ukraine.
In the United States, there is a ban on the export of electronic warfare equipment, due to fears that these technologies may fall into the hands of the enemy. The US State Department is closely monitoring compliance with this ban.
An equally important factor is the price, which, according to former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, can force the Ukrainian military to fight in a completely different way.
Western "countermeasures" cost millions
The cost of systems used by the Western military is measured in the thousands, while Ukrainian drone manufacturers strive to make their devices as cheap as possible, as a result of which they have to rely on consumer technology.
According to some reports, Ukraine has successfully used FPV drones worth only $260 to destroy Russian tanks.
Meanwhile, the Watchkeeper UAV, which is used by the British military, costs millions of pounds and is equipped with built-in technologies that allow you to resist electronic warfare.
"This is a dilemma, and only Ukrainians can answer what is better for them – to lose 50% of their $500 drones or take the next step, which will cost them much more, to counter [Russian electronic warfare]," de Bretton-Gordon said.
This week, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced that the country would try to produce a million drones for its military needs.
"Quantity turns into quality,– said de Bretton-Gordon. "Even if they lose half of their drones to Russian electronic warfare systems, they will still be able to cause huge damage."
Technologies occupy the first place in the list of what Ukrainians would like to receive. Earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned that if new equipment becomes available to the Russian forces, they will be able to "turn any city into another Artemovsk in a matter of months."
The author of the article: Joe Barnes