Russian systems were “not very mobile, not very distributed,” Clark tells WIRED. Their relatively small number of big systems, Clark says, “weren’t really relevant in the fight.”
Moscow’s strategy relied on a relatively static battlespace. On the front, they would deploy the Wildlifea heavily armored vehicle that targets radio communications. Further away, about 25 kilometers from the front lines, they would send the Read-3a six-wheeled truck capable of not only jamming cellular networks but also intercepting communications and even relay text messages to nearby cell phones. Even further, within a radius of about 180 miles, the fire truck-sized vehicle Krasukha-4 would jam aerial sensors.
“As you approach the front, you get electronic weather,” Clark says. “Your GPS won’t work, your cell phone won’t work, your Starlink won’t work.”
This electromagnetic no-man’s land is what happens when you “put up a dam,” Clark explains. But there’s a big trade-off, he says. Jamming across the spectrum requires more power, as does jamming over a wider geographic area. The more powerful a system is, the larger it must be. You can therefore disrupt all communications in a targeted area, or some communications further away, but not necessarily both.
Move fast and block things
The Russian army was marred early in the war by poor communication, poor planning, and a general slowness to adapt. Despite everything, he had a big head start. “Unfortunately, the enemy has a numerical and material advantage,” a representative of UP Innovations, a Ukrainian defense technology startup, told WIRED in a written statement.
Ukraine has therefore developed two complementary strategies: producing a large volume of less expensive electronic warfare solutions and making them iterative and adaptable.
Ukraine’s Bukovel-AD anti-drone system, for example, fits comfortably in the back of a pickup truck. THE Summer This suitcase-sized system can detect jamming signals from Russian electronic warfare systems, allowing Ukraine to target them with artillery. Ukrainian electronic warfare company Kvertus now makes 15 different anti-drone systems, from drone jamming backpacks to fixed devices that can be installed on radio towers to repel incoming drones.
When the full-scale war began in 2022, Kvertus had only one product: a shoulder-mounted anti-drone gun, like the EDM4S. “In 2022, [we were producing] dozens of devices,” Yaroslav Filimonov, CEO of Kvertus, told me when we sat down in his kyiv offices last March. “In 2023, it was hundreds. NOW? It’s thousands.
