A Ukrainian soldier from the 10th Edelweiss Mountain Assault Brigade operates a drone near Bakhmut.
This is a rare but important example of Russia’s technological advantage in a war that is gradually tilting in Moscow’s favor.
Along almost the entire front line, an invisible wall of electromagnetic pulses now stretched like a shield.
A complex network of radio, infrared and radar signals launched into the skies above the battlefield gives Russian forces unprecedented protection in some areas.
‘Their electronic warfare is better than ours’
And it’s not just Ukraine’s missiles that are currently unable to reach their targets. Perhaps more important is Russia’s ability to counter the cheap, sometimes off-the-shelf drones that Ukraine has become dependent on for long-range reconnaissance and attack.
A front-line soldier, part of a 120mm mortar unit that regularly uses Mavic drones to detect targets, told The Telegraph: “They (Russia) have always had good electronic warfare since they captured early in the war, but now it’s better than us.”
“This is still a big problem on the front,” Andrey Liscovich, of the Defense Fund of Ukraine, recently told the Geopolitics Decanted podcast. He explained Ukrainian forces are in a “constant game of cat and mouse.” with enemy Russia as they vie for control of the airwaves.
Devices deployed by the Russians could scramble their navigation systems or simply sever radio control links with their operators.
Some drones fall to the floor without hitting their targets, while others hover uncontrollably in the air until their batteries run out.
Truck-mounted Shipovnik-Aero ‘exceptionally effective’
A report by the Royal United Services Institute, the defense and security think tank, found that Russia has deployed a large electronic warfare system every six miles along the front line.
The truck-mounted Shipovnik-Aero is said to be particularly effective against Ukrainian drones.
With a range of six miles, the device can intercept drones and also obtain the pilot’s location coordinates to within one meter, to direct retaliatory artillery fire.
In front-line areas not equipped with more complex systems, Russian soldiers use smaller equipment, located in the trenches.
Battery-powered systems have a range of 50 to 100m and are not typically turned on 24 hours a day to save electricity.
In these areas, it is often easier to attack targets because the machines are not working or the drones get close enough to lose their signal.
They deploy to the front lines using spectrum analyzers to find out which frequencies are being disturbed nearby.
The main countermeasure is to reprogram the drones, which is not simple when they are bought off the shelf or built with commercially available parts.
Typically, analog signals are preferred over digital signals because the result more closely resembles a degraded video feed than a complete blackout. Another tactic is to send out a swarm of drones, as not every frequency can be blocked at the same time.
But the more sophisticated countermeasures used by NATO countries are largely considered beyond Ukraine’s reach.
The US has a ban on the export and transfer of electronic warfare equipment managed by the Department of State because of concerns that the country’s technology will fall into enemy hands.
And then there is the cost, which will force Kiev’s army to fight in a completely different style, said former NATO commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.
Western countermeasures cost millions of dollars
Systems used by Western militaries cost thousands of dollars, while Ukrainian drone manufacturers aim to keep their equipment as cheap as possible, forcing them to use technology normally.
Reports show that FPV drones costing only $260 were used by Ukraine to destroy Russian tanks.
Meanwhile, the Watchkeeper UAV operated by the British military costs millions of pounds but is equipped with electronic warfare countermeasures.
Mr de Bretton-Gordon said: “It is a difficult problem and only the Ukrainians will answer whether they are better off losing 50% of their $500 drones or taking the next, costly step.” much less able to fight that.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this week that it would seek to produce one million drones for its war efforts.
Mr de Bretton-Gordon added: “Quantity has a quality of its own. Even if they lost half of that through electronic countermeasures, they would still have a huge impact.”
