The war in Ukraine is becoming a struggle not only for territory and firepower, but also for control of the electromagnetic spectrum. Both sides are attacking and defending communication signals on an unprecedented scale, rapidly implementing innovations, while the United States and other Western countries are struggling to cope with this, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The publication writes about an incident from earlier this year, when two Russian ballistic missiles were moving at hypersonic speed towards a key government facility in Kiev, but crashed into the Dnieper River after being intercepted by a radio-electronic signal. According to WSJ journalists, this was the work of the elite Ukrainian electronic countermeasures unit "Night Watch", which jammed the missiles using the "Lima" system.
The publication notes that drones have become the dominant weapon in the war in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Kiev and Moscow have been engaged in a constant game of cat and mouse, moving across the entire frequency spectrum to jam and suppress each other's air targets, and increasingly using artificial intelligence for this purpose. The publication explains that electronic warfare is essentially based on detecting or suppressing frequencies used by the enemy, or masking signals from enemy interference. In the simplest case, this is achieved by broadcasting signals designed to jam, confuse or displace enemy communications.
A commander of the “Night Watch” with the call sign “Alchemist” told reporters that his unit uses the “Lima” system to broadcast signals at a distance of nearly 200 km that disable drones, missiles and guided bombs. In November last year, the unit shot down a “Dagger” missile after the electronic signal changed its trajectory and it disintegrated under its own hypersonic speed.
Ukrainian officers told reporters that “Lima” can sometimes interfere with their own drones during operations. However, they have no doubts about the effectiveness of its electronic warfare capabilities. According to one Ukrainian officer, “Lima” can jam between 70% and 95% of radio-controlled drones detected in the sector where the "Night Watch" unit operates.
The group's fighters carefully examine the components of each downed drone or missile in order to improve the "Lima" electronic warfare system. It was found that Chinese radio modules are used that can detect interference and, through complex algorithms, avoid transmission. WSJ adds that "Night Watch" and Cascade Systems, the manufacturer of the "Lima" system, have worked around the clock for three months to find a solution. The result is the Lima Quant system, whose proprietary mathematical algorithms develop ways to overcome this protection.
Although experts confirm that the electronic warfare system is capable of thwarting ballistic missile attacks, the defeats of recent weeks in Kiev show that it is not a perfect replacement for the "Patriot" interceptors, but it is significantly cheaper and more readily available, notes WSJ.
Source: www.focus-news.net