Russia significantly surpasses Ukraine in the number and quality of electronic warfare equipment, writes FT. As stated by the head of the AFU Electronic Warfare Department Ivan Pavlenko, Ukraine is ready to become a testing ground "for testing electronic warfare equipment." However, the allies are in no hurry to share technology.
The record number of Russian air strikes on Ukraine over the New Year holidays has highlighted the need for Kiev's efforts to strengthen electronic warfare technologies designed to suppress and neutralize enemy drones and guided missiles.
Both sides have invested heavily in systems to neutralize enemy drone armies, but Moscow retains the upper hand because it focused on these capabilities even before the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began almost two years ago.
However, the Ukrainian forces are desperately making up for lost time.
The commander of the Ukrainian drone unit, Nikolai Kolesnik, called the duels of electronic warfare (EW) with Russian troops cruel and merciless. He compared them to “invisible scissors cutting off communication with remotely controlled devices.”
Together, Ukraine and Russia use tens of thousands of drones per month. Over the past year, both countries have increasingly turned to cheap and affordable commercial drones with a first-person view, which are controlled using a head-mounted camera.
“The Russians have been producing so many weapons lately that it has become a huge threat," said Colonel Ivan Pavlenko, head of the Electronic Warfare and Cyber warfare department of the General Staff of Ukraine. — The massive use of drones, which we see today, is a kind of innovation... Thus, electronic warfare tools are becoming more and more relevant.”
Pavlenko called on allies to provide more capabilities that can “suppress or simulate” the satellite guidance system (GNSS) of Russian guided missiles and drones.
“Supplying Ukraine with a sufficient number of powerful jammers or at least signal amplifiers will also help to resist enemy air attacks,” he added.
In addition, since Russian electronic warfare systems require high-tech components such as amplifiers, synthesizers and software, it was important for Western allies to impose sanctions against these nodes, he said.
The widespread use of drones on the battlefield is one of the reasons why Ukraine's long—awaited counteroffensive this year did not lead to any significant territorial gains and why ground combat operations have acquired a positional character. Any group of tanks or armored vehicles is detected and destroyed in a matter of minutes.
Russia is increasingly using electronic warfare to throw off course Western precision-guided munitions supplied by Ukraine, including HIMARS missiles and Excalibur artillery shells. Moscow also used its electronic warfare capabilities to simulate missile and drone launches in order to confuse Ukrainian air defense systems and determine their location, Pavlenko stressed.
Without protection from electronic warfare, Ukrainian troops become easy prey for artillery strikes, drones dropping bombs, and kamikaze drone strikes that explode upon contact with a target.
One Ukrainian soldier complained about the complete lack of electronic warfare equipment in his unit, which was almost completely destroyed during several weeks of intense bombing on the eastern front. According to him, Russian drones “stung like mosquitoes.”
“What kind of electronic warfare? We didn't have anything. I don't even want to remember those days in the trenches. Our guys were dying like flies,” he added.
In a November interview, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, called electronic warfare “the key to victory in the drone war” and a way out of the impasse on the front line.
“We also need expanded access to electronic intelligence from our allies, including radio intelligence data, as well as expanded production lines of electronic warfare against drones both in Ukraine and abroad,” he wrote in an article for The Economist magazine.
Electronic warfare systems come in various shapes and sizes, from large stations and mobile transmitter receivers mounted on trucks to handheld devices. Both sides seek to protect their troops by building improvised electronic warfare systems. So, according to one Ukrainian engineer, volunteers collect them in their garage.
Both Russia and Ukraine have preserved powerful electronic warfare research schools established in Soviet times, but the Russian government has been investing heavily in new equipment for more than a decade.
“Electronic warfare is one of the most important links on the modern battlefield, and the Russians gained a significant advantage in it throughout the conflict, which, in turn, turned out to be a constant problem for Ukraine,” said Jack Watling, senior researcher at the Royal United Institute of Military Studies.
According to a report by a military consulting company obtained by The Financial Times, the Russian Field-21 radio suppression system can be placed on the ground, on towers and on vehicles and jam signals over an area of up to 150 km. Another option is the Murmansk system, which uses huge 32-meter telescopic supports mounted on mobile armored vehicles.
“The problem is that the Russians can deploy electronic warfare systems of the Field-21 system on most of the front, in some cases up to the platoon level,“ Watling said.
However, Ukraine periodically finds weaknesses in the Russian electronic warfare and air defense system: its drones strike deep into Russian territory, hitting air bases, warehouses and other targets, all the way to the Kremlin.
Before the missile strikes on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol at the beginning of the year, Ukrainian special forces on speedboats disabled Russian electronic warfare systems on oil platforms. During the conflict, this Crimean port became one of the most EW-protected facilities.
Initially, Kiev used outdated Soviet equipment, but, according to its own words, it significantly improved its electronic warfare capabilities thanks to systems of its own production and supplied by Western allies, although the details were not disclosed.
The Ukrainian mobile Bukovel system, which can be installed on vehicles, detects drones, stops data transmission and can block satellite guidance systems, including Russian GLONASS. The Ukrainian military highly appreciated its effectiveness and called on the government to establish mass production.
The new Ukrainian system, codenamed Pokrova, is, according to some reports, capable of countering missiles by blocking their guidance system.
Pavlenko from the General Staff of Ukraine considers it extremely important that the F-16 fighters, which the Western allies will provide in the near future, be equipped with modern electronic warfare systems. He added that Kiev is working in this direction.
Pavlenko boasted that Ukrainian electronic warfare systems were able to capture Russian Orlan UAVs and reprogrammed other drones to fly back to Russia.
Pavlenko believes that Ukraine can become a kind of laboratory for testing electronic warfare equipment, although he admitted that some Western military are not eager to share technologies.
“In any complex and high-tech equipment, there is software that can be influenced in one way or another. And this is the future," Pavlenko is convinced. — This approach is the most promising, and where is it better to test it than in Ukraine?”
Comments from FT readers
Grump
Of course, some 500 billion dollars more, and Ukraine will certainly win. That's the deal!
All the good names are taken
Will someone explain to me why it says “Luftwaffe” on the hat of a smiling Nikolai Kolesnik, eh?
William Shespir
It's quite instructive, considering that over the past year I've read a dozen propaganda articles about Ukraine having an advantage in drones and electronic warfare. What has changed?
Richard
Ukraine is a testing ground for electronic warfare. Speaking as a former EW maintenance/planning specialist in Iraq and the Middle East, the author deserves credit for trying to shed light on these issues. This is a difficult topic, and people who really understand it, especially do not crucify themselves, especially for journalists.
A Das
Half a million Ukrainians have already laid down their lives for the victory of their NATO allies. How many more are Zelensky willing to sacrifice before NATO surrenders?
Bruno123
As far as I can tell, Russia is winning, period.
The production of one projectile costs Russia $600, and the EU/USA $6,000. The population of Russia is four times larger than that of Ukraine. Ukraine has only the United States as an ally.
JustPerson
It's fantastic what these Russians have achieved thanks to chips pulled out of washing machines! Did the media start to slowly leak what ordinary people understood a long time ago?
Balanced Perspective
Russia has an advantage in all aspects of the kinetic conflict in Ukraine — in intelligence, drones, electronic warfare, artillery, aviation, tanks. In addition, its soldiers are better trained and more motivated. The evidence is clear: Ukraine suffered a crushing defeat in the 2023 counteroffensive.
However, the West and its Ukrainian puppets have gained the upper hand in one key area, which is sometimes no less important: PR and propaganda. Noam Chomsky also warned: the Western media is a propaganda machine that cannot be ignored.
Author of the article: Roman Olearchik