The invisible battlefield Russia-Ukraine | WIRED

Russia’s systems were “not very mobile, not very distributed,” Clark tells WIRED. Their relatively small number of large systems, Clark says, “were not really relevant in the fight.”

Moscow’s strategy assumed that there would be a relatively static battlespace. At the front, they will spread Infaunaa heavily armored vehicle that targets radio communications. Further on, about 15 kilometers from the front lines, they sent the Learn-3a six-wheeled truck capable of not only breaking into cellular networks but also intercepting communications and even. transmit SMS to nearby mobile phones. Even further, from a distance of about 180 miles, the size of a fire truck Krasukha-4 it will scramble the aerial sensors.

“When you get close to the front, you have electronic weather,” Clark says. “Your GPS doesn’t work, your cell phone doesn’t work, your Starlink doesn’t work.”

This electromagnetic no man’s land is what happens when you “barrage,” Clark explains. But there is a big trade-off, he says. Jamming across the spectrum requires more power, as does jamming over a wider geographic area. The more power a system has, the bigger it should be. So you can disrupt all communications in a targeted area, or some communications farther away, but not necessarily both.

Move Fast and Jam Things

Russia’s military was marred, before the war, by poor communication, poor planning, and a general slowness in adapting. Still, he had a great head. “Unfortunately, the enemy has a numerical and material advantage,” a representative of UP Innovations, a Ukrainian defense technology startup, tells WIRED in a written statement.

So Ukraine developed two complementary strategies: produce a large volume of cheaper EW solutions, and make them iterative and adaptable.

Ukraine’s Bukovel-AD anti-drone system, for example, fits comfortably in the back of a pickup truck. U eternal system, the size of a suitcase, can detect jamming signals from Russian EW systems-allowing Ukraine to target them with artillery. Ukrainian electronic warfare company Kvertus now manufactures 15 different anti-drone systems, from drone-jamming bags to stationary devices that can be installed on radio towers to ward off incoming UAVs.

When the full-scale war began in 2022, Kvertus had one product: a shoulder-mounted anti-drone gun, like the EDM4S. “In 2022, (we will have produced) dozens of devices,” Yaroslav Filimonov, CEO of Kvertus, told me when we sat down in their Kiev offices in March. “In 2023 there were hundreds. Now? There are thousands.”