Thursday, August 17, 2023

US Army Scrambles To Boost Electronic Warfare Readiness After Watching Russia And Ukraine Jam Each Other's Drones

A US Army's 1st Infantry Division soldier trains on electronic-warfare equipment on September 6, 2019. US Army/Staff Sgt. Simon Mictizic

Insider: The US Army is rushing to rearm its electronic warriors after watching Russia and Ukraine jam each other's drones 

* Electronic warfare has played a prominent role during the war in Ukraine. 

* Ukraine and Russia are both using EW to interfere with each other's operations and aid their own.

* That has added urgency to the US Army's efforts to update its own EW weaponry. 

After years of neglecting electronic warfare, the US Army is rushing to revitalize its jamming capabilities. 

The catalyst is the Ukraine war, where cheap but plentiful drones are playing a vital — almost decisive — role, doing everything from spotting for artillery to destroying armored vehicles. 

At the same time, jamming has emerged as perhaps the most effective counter-drone weapon: Ukraine may be losing 10,000 drones a month — many to Russian electronic-warfare systems — while it strives to boost its jamming capabilities. Rather than using scarce and expensive antiaircraft missiles and guns to shoot down a drone that may cost only a few hundred dollars, it's easier to disrupt the link between the drone and its operator, causing it to crash.  

Read more .... 

US Army Scrambles To Boost Electronic Warfare Readiness 

20 Years Behind, US Army To Up Its EW Capability As Russia Takes A Massive Lead In Electronic Warfare -- EurAsian Times  

US Scrambles To Boost Electronic Warfare Readiness As Russia-Ukraine Drone Jamming Raises Concerns -- Benzinga 

Ukraine war driving US Army electronic warfare development, Bush says -- C4ISRNET

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The US army should consult with experts from the African National Congress Party of South African about how to jam cell phone service before you murder a family.

Anonymous said...

Except it won't work: newer Russian drones do not rely on a link to an "operator" or Glonass (GPS). See the new Lancet3, once launched it is autonomous, navigates by internal terrain map, searches for it's own targets , prioritizes them, and then attacks, selecting one of it's linked local fellow Lancets to strike the target, then observes the target in case a second strike is needed, or moves on to another target on the priority tree. The videos you see on Telegram are not necessary, they are transmitted back to base, when possible, so operators can see if the target was hit, as an extra feature, not the central one.

And other Russian drones will operate the same way. If jamming becomes pervasive, they all will. I read about another small drone that will operate the sameway as the Lancet, and it was said to cost $1,200 USD equivalent, making it by far the cheapest way to attack the enemy. 9 of these, costing $10,800, could take out an entire Patriot batery costing about $1.2 Billion with missiles.

Ukraine is using mostly DJI drones from China, the same ones you can buy almost anywhere at a store, and they DO depend on the link to the operator.

Just another case of NATO/US develping weapons systems to fight the last war, not the one they will have to fight now.

Not that developing EW is a bad idea, it has to be done, but it will have limited effect in the future, as "jamming" will be less effective over time.

THe USA finally woke up, I recall a US Air Force General who was in charge of EW said about 2-3 years that Russia was 10-20 years ahead of the USA in EW and gaining. Likely the same for all NATO weapons systems, really - hypersonic missiles, anbyone?

Anonymous said...

The Kinzal hypersonic missile is not working out so well. It is being shot down all the time.

Anonymous said...

War has it's surprises!

Anonymous said...

Robert L. Peters must go to jail.

Anonymous said...

Scrambled eggs

jac said...

Oh!

Anonymous said...

"The Kinzal hypersonic missile is not working out so well. It is being shot down all the time."

hahahahahahahaha

Did you read that in Ukrainska Pravda? I'm sure they told the truth.