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Wired
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The Invisible Russia-Ukraine Battlefield
- Ukraine and Russia are engaged in an unseen battle for control of the electromagnetic spectrum. Both sides are trying to innovate better ways to spoof, jam, and disrupt enemy communications, particularly drones, while simultaneously working to harden their own systems against hostile signals. Electronic warfare began to mature during WWII. Kyiv identified winning the upper hand in this battle as one of its key priorities against Russia. It's a cat-and-mouse game in which both countries are competing to develop more sophisticated technologies.
- With Russia advancing across eastern Ukraine, the need to gain control of the electromagnetic space has only grown more important. Hundreds of portable electronic-warfare weapons, including Electronic Drone Mitigation 4 System from Lithuania, have been donated to Ukraine over the past two years. Ukraine has developed a secretive mesh network of EW systems called Pokrova to spoof the Shahed navigation systems of drones and bring them down for analysis.
- Russia’s EW program is being challenged by Ukraine's efforts to produce larger volumes of cheaper EW solutions that can be quickly adapted. Kvertus, a Ukrainian electronic warfare company, was producing tens of devices in 2022, and by 2023, it was producing hundreds, whereas now it's producing thousands. UP Innovations, a Ukrainian defense tech start-up, has been working on special helmet pads with fabric that acts as a Faraday cage to protect the wearer’s radios from jamming.
- The Battle of the Beams was on track toward an electromagnetic stalemate. Then, England innovated with early aircraft interception radar on Bristol Beaufighter. Now, the idea of innovation in EW is about iterating with counter-measures quickly rather than behind held back by bureaucracy. Igor, a defense executive from Ukraine, has been working on an anti-drone drone or “fire and forget” solution, that could loiter in the skies, target all incoming Russian drones, and destroy them without human intervention.
- The United States hasn’t yet handed over the EW crown jewels. Mick Ryan, an independent military analyst, suggests that the US and its closet partners need to change the paradigm on how they look at EW technologies and how best to use them against Russia. Ukraine is now toe-to-toe with Russia and has achieved “parity”, although it needs superiority — a real breakthrough may have to come from Washington.
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