Western Media Unanimous in Praise for Russia’s Electronic Warfare Tech

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04:19 GMT 29.05.2024 (Updated: 04:58 GMT 29.05.2024)

Western countries are significantly behind Russia in developing technology to jam and disable electronic signals on the battlefield, says one expert.

An invisible force is proving decisive in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, claims analyst Mark Sleboda, and Western media has taken notice.

A slew of US and European news outlets, from the Washington Post to the Financial Times, have acknowledged in recent weeks that Russian electronic weapons are dealing a knockout blow to NATO’s most advanced weaponry. The technology has allowed Moscow to thwart GPS targeting guidance and jam communications signals, leaving Kiev unable to lock on to Russian targets or even maintain contact among troops on the battlefield.

Sleboda joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Tuesday to shed light on Moscow’s game-changing capabilities, which are earning plaudits from the likes of former US Department of Defense officer David Pyne.

“Electronic warfare is a field of warfare that a lot of people don’t understand, primarily because they can’t see it,” said the international relations expert.

“But when you think that almost all modern weapons systems – particularly US/NATO weapons systems – have for years put a premium on accuracy, particularly with GPS guidance, [and] rely on electromagnetic frequencies… and you’re dealing with a capability that has the potential to nullify or even substitute false signals for all of this control, all of this guidance, and to jam all of these communications, you start to realize how powerful a game-changing weapon electronic warfare systems can be on the battlefield.”

Russia's Krasukha-4 electronic warfare system. File photo - Sputnik International, 1920, 28.05.2024

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Sleboda said Russia has been perfecting such technology for decades as a response to its adversaries’ air and long-range precision strike capabilities. Instead of attempting merely to match Western developments in these areas, Moscow sought to counter NATO’s strengths asymmetrically, pushing forward in areas the US and Europe had yet to explore.

The analyst noted work by scholars Roger McDermott and Michael Kofman revealing the significant technological advantage Russia has gained by focusing on electronic warfare research since the days of the Soviet Union.

“Western media is really starting to notice this now… You don’t have to go to Sputnik to see this anymore,” Sleboda observed, listing off a series of recent articles on the subject.

“Washington Post – ‘Russian jamming leaves some high-tech US weapons ineffective in Ukraine’… Defense One – ‘Another US precision guided weapon falls prey to Russian electronic warfare.’ The Economist – ‘Russia is starting to make its superiority in electronic warfare count’… The New York Times – ‘Jamming: How electronic warfare is reshaping Ukraine’s battlefield.’ Or the Financial Times – ‘Military briefing: Russia has the upper hand in electronic warfare with Ukraine.’”

“So I think the consensus is out there. The Western mainstream media has had their mea culpa moment on the effectiveness of Russia’s electronic warfare against these advanced US and NATO weapons systems,” he concluded, noting that Moscow’s capabilities have disabled even advanced armaments like GPS-guided Excalibur rounds, Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) and HIMARS systems.

The provision of Elon Musk’s Starlink system, with its vast constellation of communications satellites, was thought to provide a major advantage to Kiev early on in the conflict after the US military’s Viasat platform was blocked. But Russia managed to jam Starlink signals as well, leaving Ukrainian troops unable to communicate for days amid recent fighting near Kharkov.

“Now Russia and China are in a fairly advanced stage of developing – not just developing, but deploying – their own equivalent of Starlink systems because they see how effective they have been for communications on the battlefield,” Sleboda reported.