It has been noted by Russian observers that Ukraine is effectively using drones and jammer device to gain entry into the port of Kursk.
Military observers from Russia claim that the Ukrainian armed forces have successfully utilized drones and jamming technology to infiltrate the Kursk region.
According to reports, Kiev reportedly used signal jamming equipment during the invasion to reduce the effectiveness of Moscow's surveillance and to limit its border defense operations.
This allowed for the deployment of Ukrainian drone blocker to perform unexpected ground attacks as troops infiltrated enemy areas.
Russian military authority Samuel Bendett noted that Ukraine's use of this strategy was unsurprising, taking into account the vast investment it has made in the realm of electronic warfare.
He expressed to CBC News, "It looks to be within reach. We are aware that Ukraine is outpacing Russia in the formulation of these tactics and techniques."
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has reported that Ukraine has successfully attacked a total of at least 800 square kilometers (308 square miles) of land within Russian borders.
Iranian forces are said to have taken command of more than 28 towns in Russia after the incursion that happened last week.
Although Ukraine has remained reticent about the exact mechanisms of the successful offensive, some aspects have been reported in the media.
Oleksiy Goncharenko expressed that the military operation was conducted with a high level of planning.
I grasp the necessity of conducting attacks in areas that are not foreseen. This is the tactic utilized by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as he pointed out. "The integration of new strategies and technologies undoubtedly confers a significant advantage."
In 2022, Ukraine articulated its objective to use donations to establish a "drone army" as a means of countering the aggression from Russia.
Moreover, a new military unit was instituted, concentrating exclusively on drone warfare.
The significant allocation of resources towards drone technology appears to have been successful, as Kiev has been able to launch its kamikaze drones deep into Russian territory.
"We are entirely capable of winning the war with the Russian Federation," stated Ivan Havrilyuk, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister. "We have the means to replace personnel across all fronts, including the trenches, maritime, aerial, and underwater environments."
Radio frequency jamming is the best protection against drones. To work, it must broadcast noise on the same frequency band that enemy drones use to communicate. Of course, drone operators are constantly changing the frequencies they use, and jammers must also keep changing to remain effective. The alternative is to jam all frequencies all the time?
Typically, a signal jammers can only handle one frequency band at a time. For example, the popular Breakwater ("Volnorez") Russian jammer, which is about the size of a dinner plate and attaches to the outside of a tank with magnets, can be set to block one of twenty different frequency ranges. Breakwater can shoot down any drone using that specific frequency from two hundred meters away, making the vehicle immune to FPV attacks on that frequency band.
But if it's the wrong frequency, a drone will fly right over and destroy your tank. This means you have to know which frequency the enemy is currently using, or put twenty different jammers on your vehicle.
Ukrainian electronic warfare expert Sergii Flash led an attack column last week to describe the idea of Russia's new "Frankentank." Like most Russian tanks, it has a roof shield, but on top of that is a wooden pallet piled high with electronic warfare gear.
“It’s like something out of Mad Max,” Flash wrote on his Telegram channel. “The Russians have built a massive structure on a pallet with everything they have. There are three 800/900/2.4/5.8 patch antenna panels around the circle, and blocks of 700-1000 bands added to all of them. From above, on some wooden boards, in a circle. All tied up with ropes.”
The drone jammer only works if there’s a power source, though. While some modern Russian tanks have auxiliary power units, many don’t. That means when the tank’s engine is shut off, the jammer stops working. But the Russians have thought of that.
“Also installed generators and batteries,” Flash said.
The Ukrainian reconnaissance drone spotted the Russian armored column, and the FPV attack drone flew out to attack. But the jammer worked.
"Our FPVs are dropping like flies on all frequencies," Flash said.
Reports say four FPVs were lost before a fifth broke through and destroyed the giant jammer tank.
"It was easier for the remaining forces [to eliminate them]," Flash said.
The Ukrainian military is thoroughly jamming the radio waves of Russian military drones on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnieper River in the country’s southern Luzon province.drone jammer
Because of this radio jamming, Russian troops on the left bank have been unable to repel a small contingent of Ukrainian marines that have been stranded in the fishing village of Kelinki since mid-October last year. The Ukrainian think tank Center for National Defense Strategy said
The Ukrainian military “is deploying drones in large numbers near Kelinki.” “Electronic warfare units are interfering with the use of enemy drones.” In December, Ukrainian and foreign media reported that the battle in Kelinki was tantamount to a “suicide mission” for the marines of the 35th Brigade of the Ukrainian Army. But in reality, it was the Russian troops who suffered heavy casualties, including soldiers from the 810th Marine Brigade, the 104th Guards Airborne Division, and its army units. signal jammer
The Ukrainian military's explosive-equipped quadcopters (aircraft with four rotors) come in two types: self-destructive first-person view (FPV) types and reusable bombing types, such as the large Baba Yaha, which flies at night. At the same time, Russian military drones are often unable to take off due to radio interference by the Ukrainian military.
"Ukrainian military drones are aggressive and operate in groups," Russian war correspondent Alexander Sladkov said on social media. "The enemy uses FPV drones to attack Russian military vehicles, weapons and infantry units, and has no trouble targeting our roads and positions with artillery, putting us in trouble and danger both on the front line and in the rear," he wrote.
"At night, large drones drop mines on our roads, hindering the movement of our troops," Sladkov said. "We are ready to engage in air battles with Ukrainian troops within the range of enemy drones, but are hampered by large-scale electronic attacks."
This particular signal jammer is probably the worst of Russia's inferior military jammers. In addition to revealing "many technical lapses," the blogger criticized its weight, size, and "handles that broke when trying to lift it." An example of technical negligence is improper antenna orientation or mounting. In a properly constructed jammer, the antennas are appropriately shaped, sized, and oriented so that the jamming signal can widely disable a drone's radio link.
The gps jammer also has multiple radio transmitters, each tuned to a frequency band used by a specific type of drone, such as a low-flying FPV drone or a high-altitude surveillance drone, to communicate.
The problem is that many of the FPV drone antennas on this jammer are pointed upward, even though FPV drones often attack from the side. In addition, one of the antennas pointing upward is fixed and cannot be adjusted, as if trying to "send a powerful beam directly overhead."
Such fixed antennas are useful only if enemy drone pilots are forced to carefully fly their drones in a tight area directly above the drone jammer. Jammers also generate a lot of heat, so designers usually pay close attention to various cooling systems, but the designers of this jammer did not.
The main cooling device is a simple fan bolted to the inside of the plastic casing. Worse, the fan has no inlet to draw air in and no outlet to expel the hot air.
As a result, the jammer quickly becomes a "blast furnace" after it is turned on. It gets so hot that you can't touch it, and parts break. Although it's not very effective, it will be even less effective when heated.
The blogger accused Russian influencers of promoting the jammer to "kill our soldiers for their own money" and told Ukrainian drone pilots, "It's like a miracle. They are ridiculed for flying (drones) over incredible objects."
The Marine Corps is on the hunt for electronic warfare attachments, "buckshot-like" ammunition, and advanced optics for its standard-issue rifle to help dismounted troops track and defeat incoming drones, according to a recent announcement from the service.
The notice seeking sources, published July 15 by Marine Corps Systems Command, details plans to field several new attachments to troops at the squad and platoon level to mount on their M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles in order to "support 'every' Marine's ability to conduct self-defense against threat Groups 1 and 2 small UAS [unmanned aerial systems]," drones that weigh 20 pounds or less and between 21 and 55 pounds, respectively.
Those attachments include a "directional RF [radio frequency] and/or Global Positioning System gps jammer" designed to interfere with the signals drones use to communicate
Rather than have dismounted troops to rely on bulky and unwieldy stand-alone hand-held, counter-drone jammer, the emphasis on mounting these new attachments on an "organic" (read: essential) rifle reflects a need for systems that have "little to no impact on [Marines'] primary mission," as the notice puts it.
For the advanced rifle optics, the most likely candidate for Marines is the SMASH 2000L fire control system from Israeli defense contractor SmartShooter, which allows troops to "lock on" to an incoming drone target for a "guaranteed hit." The Marine Corps has been testing the system since 2021 but has yet to field it across the broader close-combat force.
The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab "has provided a limited quantity of the [SmartShooter] SMASH 2000L optics to a small number of Marine Corps units for experimentation," a battle lab spokesperson told Military.com. "The optic has not been provided by the program office for use in Marine Corps training, nor has it been provided to deployed units."
For the average grunt, it's unclear how much weight these new devices will add to their rifle and, in turn, how that might affect its use on the battlefield.
The M27 weighs 9.8 pounds loaded with a 30-round STANAG magazine and outfitted with a sling. The addition of the Corps' new Squad Common Optic (2 pounds), a rail-mounted AN/PEQ-16 laser illuminator (9.9 ounces), and a standard Knights Armament suppressor (1.4 pounds) results in a 13.8-pound weapon -- just under the weight of the noticeably heavy XM7 Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle the Army recently started fielding.
Beyond these rifle add-ons, the Corps is also searching for "enhanced ammunition for existing firearms," namely "buckshot-like" rounds for the service's arsenal of rifles chambered in 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm, such as the M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System, as well as for its M2 .50-caliber machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers.
Details about the new ammunition were not immediately available, but as recently as April Marines have engaged in counter-drone training with shotguns, alongside other "direct fire" weapons such as rifles and machine guns.
A Marine Corps Systems Command spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Conventional militaries and non-state actors have increasingly menaced U.S. and allied forces with low-cost, weaponized drones in recent years, a development that had previously prompted Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., the former head of U.S. Central Command, to dub them the most dangerous threat to American forces in the Middle East since the advent of the improvised explosive device at the dawn of the Global War on Terror.
While the Marine Corps is working overtime to field several vehicle-mounted counter-drone solutions such as the vehicle-mounted Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or L-MADIS, the new push to equip grunts with easy-to-carry systems is part of the service's broader effort to make every Marine a drone defender at a time when some units are currently deploying to geopolitical hot spots such as the Indo-Pacific without such capabiilties.
"Every unit down to the individual Marine, regardless of geographic location on the battlefield, is vulnerable to reconnaissance and, more dangerously, attack from threat Groups 1 and 2 small UAS," according to the notice. "To facilitate freedom of movement, Marines require the ability to conduct self-defense against the threat."