Russia's Electronic Warfare Advances

NATO Expert Report: Russia's Technological Advances Pose a Threat to the Baltic States (photo SCANPIX)  Russia has made significant ...

NATO Expert Report: Russia's Technological Advances Pose a Threat to the Baltic States (photo SCANPIX) 

Russia has made significant progress in the field of cyber warfare, which potentially outperforms the electronic systems available to the West, both warfare and private companies. The Estonian-based NATO Analytical Center released a report in September that revealed that Russia's military modernization plan to 2025 provides the basis for further leadership in the field.

Russia is developing and improving the full range of electronic warfare (EW) systems. These systems include traditional tasks such as tracking, defense, and resistance. One of their goals is to protect the electromagnetic range in which Russian communications operate. These complex devices are highly mobile and can be transported by the simplest drone.

Russian military personnel. Photo: RUSSIAN DEFENCE 

According to the authors of the report, Russia's electronic warfare equipment is capable of damaging or disrupting NATO's communications channels, drones, radar and other sensor system equipment. After the events in Ukraine, when it comes to the Alliance's readiness to defend the Baltic states from a possible Russian attack, problems may arise at an early stage - by protecting the country's electronic attack by applying A2 / AD (anti-access and area denial) schemes.

Experts fear that Russia's blocking of a certain zone would deprive the Allies of the opportunity to develop the operation of communication and information systems. According to Western analysts, there are more than ten A2 / AD zones in Russia, including Kaliningrad or St. Petersburg zones near Lithuania .

Russia is investing billions in cyber warfare 

The report, published by Roger McDermott , an expert at the International Center for Defense and Security Issues in Estonia , pays special attention to the threats that Russia's electronic warfare measures pose to the Baltic region. However, the authors' conclusions can be applied to the entire eastern NATO border with Russia, as the country's EW facilities are extremely mobile.

Changes in the Russian EW are not limited to the reorganization of the armed forces, command systems, preparedness and tactics, methods and procedures. They are also not just improvements in air defense or intrusion prevention, but also in concepts such as psychological operations and cyber attacks. The report predicts the growing compatibility of EW, cyber and information warfare measures in the Russian armed forces.

This trend is already visible in the West. Despite the naming of such Russian EW powers, the report's authors warn against overestimating the country's ability to strike NATO's systems. For example, the report dispels the myth that the Russian military managed to "dazzle" the USIS anti-missile system AEGIS in the Black Sea in 2014 . The report called the story disinformation that had previously been dispelled and refuted in a North Atlantic Council forensic laboratory study.

Nevertheless, Russia's long-term plan to invest billions in e-warfare shows that Moscow is unwilling to slow down their development. This strategy began to be developed before the war in Ukraine, but the lessons learned here influenced further planning and allowed the Kremlin to improve its operations as well as develop modern electronic combat tools.

New electronic warfare tools are being developed

Russian military commanders call the national EW strategy an "asymmetric response to NATO's military operations system." The Russian EW system consists of the shortwave radio electronic combat coastal system Murmansk BN , with a range of 5 thousand. kilometers and can be fitted to seven Kamaz trucks. It is able to track the activity of objects on the air and has communication blocking capabilities. The Russians claim that the Murmansk BN complex is aimed at the US global communications system, which is the backbone of NATO and the US Navy and Air Force.

Another electronic warfare tool being developed in Russia is the automatic electronic combat complex RB-109A "Bylina" , which will perform automatic EW control at the brigade level. The installation will have artificial intelligence for electromagnetic spectrum analysis and real-time prioritization. It is planned to start using the Bylina complexes already in 2018, and the supply to the Russian army will start in 2025.

Ukraine - a test site 

Ukraine, and Crimea in particular, has become an excellent testing ground for Russia's electronic warfare. According to the plan to annex the peninsula, Russian specialists completely "disconnected" the command and control system of the Ukrainian army. When the Russian army was deployed in Donbass, it adapted EW systems and trained local strikers to use them. The report states that much of the EW weapons used by Russia have been classified and are difficult to assess accurately. All that is known is that new EW algorithms have been experimented with in the east of Ukraine.

However, the Ukrainian army also had to learn to operate the enemy using electronic warfare techniques. She received some technical and theoretical training from Western instructors and radio systems SINCGARS. One lesson they were able to learn was that the Russian military had developed an approach to the operation of independent tactical EW teams that allowed them to work in a constant change of location, the report said.

Not only that, the Russian leadership is clearly prioritizing the testing of EW in Ukraine, including the application of the latest technology in the detection of artillery targets in psychological operations. The report also states that, judging from experience, NATO's first sign of Russia's military activity against eastern members of the alliance will likely be the use of EW means. The Alliance still has a long way to go to reduce the backlog caused by ignoring the growth of Russia's military potential in this area.