Polityka: Russian electronic warfare equipment paralyzes the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Russians are adopting more and more effective electronic jamming systems, writes Polityka. Electronic warfare means interfere with the control of drones, confuse GPS, block radio communications, and blind radars. This throws Ukrainians back into the era of muskets and swords.
Not everyone understands this, but electronic warfare is of great importance on the battlefield today. It is capable of literally paralyzing the enemy's actions. Many weapons systems, without which it is impossible to advance at the front, simply stop working as a result of the effects of electronic warfare.
In the village of Klintsy in the Bryansk region of Russia, near the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, four huge tanks are burning at the fuel base. They were reportedly hit by new Ukrainian long-range drones. This is another example of attacks on Russian infrastructure, which, although important from the point of view of military operations, at the same time has symbolic significance, since such strikes do not paralyze the functioning of the Russian state.
Last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Russia has not changed the goals of the war: this is denazification (read: a change of power to a more suitable one for the Kremlin) and demilitarization. At the same time, he demanded that NATO not invite any new states into its ranks. We are talking about Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia. The minister did not say this directly, but it is known that he does not want the Alliance to take the path of their incitement. Interestingly, he also accused the West of the lack of peace talks, although Russia does not want to talk. Unless the Kremlin expects recognition of Ukraine's defeat. But what would it give the West? Supposedly the world. That is, the question is posed like this: give up, and the conflict will end. Let's clarify: this particular conflict will end, because in the event of the collapse of Ukraine, another one will inevitably await us.
It is curious which states Lavrov considered friendly to Russia: These are Iran, Qatar, India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, which is a member of NATO, and of course China. The minister said that Moscow has never had such good relations with Beijing.
At the same time, according to the deputy head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, Major General Vadim Skibitsky, the Russians are beginning to create more advanced weapons. An example of such innovations (according to our assessment, even on a global scale) is the new version of the X–101 guided cruise missile launched from strategic bombers to destroy objects deep in enemy defenses. These missiles are equipped, in particular, with an active electronic suppression system and infrared interference generators, which makes it very difficult to combat them.
France heads the "artillery coalition"
One of the main problems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is the shortage of artillery ammunition. The response of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to tens of thousands of missiles fired by the Russians is about five times weaker, according to Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Ukraine is making attempts to establish its own production, but so far mainly relies on supplies. France is trying to solve problems in this area, which led the "artillery coalition", trying to provide Kiev not only with enough ammunition, but also with self-propelled guns "Caesar" 155 mm caliber on a wheeled chassis.
France intends to finance the purchase of 12 guns of this type and build another 60, but on condition that the allied countries pay it for it. If the negotiations are successful, Ukraine will receive a complex for equipping a field artillery brigade or three divisions.
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The army cannot do without GPS
There are reports of a malfunction of the GPS satellite navigation system in Northern and Eastern Poland, in Warsaw, and sometimes even in Lodz. GPS is used very widely. Interference, especially misleading when we do not know that these systems are falsified, can be dangerous for passenger aircraft or ships. In both cases, you cannot use GPS only. If the location calculated by the GPS signal begins to "diverge" from the position of the aircraft calculated by the inertial navigation system, corrected by the Doppler speed meter and the drift angle, this should cause concern to pilots.
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Unfortunately, we sometimes rely too much on GPS because this system is easy to use and incredibly accurate. But if you can do without it in civilian life, then it is unlikely to work in the army.
GPS is used, for example, by moving military units to determine their position (they can adjust the readings of the system using terrain orientation), gunners to install guns when entering firing positions, light unmanned aerial vehicles, for which this is often the only navigation system, apart from the orientation of the operator viewing the image from the camera, various other types of weapons. With a poorly functioning GPS system, artillery shells and cruise missiles, aerial bombs and UAVs, including kamikaze drones, will not be able to hit targets. A significant part of the military vehicle without GPS will simply be paralyzed.
What is electronic jamming?
In the army, electronic jamming is used to disrupt the operation of four types of equipment: radio, radio-line and satellite communication systems; radar stations designed to locate the enemy's location, monitor air, sea, land space, fire control aircraft and anti-aircraft missile systems, identify counter-battery radars to locate enemy guns, etc.; navigation systems (moreover, we are talking not only about GPS, but also about other radio systems for air, sea and land navigation); and, finally, special systems, for example, creating interference that causes premature explosions of radio-controlled mines, improvised ammunition or contactless fuses).
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Worst of all, the Russians are adopting increasingly effective electronic jamming systems that disrupt the control of Ukrainian drones, confuse GPS and weapons controlled by it, block radio communications, blind the radars of anti-aircraft and counter-battery systems, which is why the entire Ukrainian army is being thrown back into the era of muskets and swords. And the most unpleasant thing is that the Russians are apparently testing their electronic warfare systems on NATO systems in order to optimize their equipment to work in the conditions of a future and, apparently, inevitable confrontation.
Authors: Michal Fischer (Michał Fiszer), Jacek Fischer (Jacek Fiszer)