WWI Tech That’s Helping Ukraine Fool Russia

For Ukraine it is increasingly difficult to hide from Russian eyes the large number of soldiers he is amassing for his big offensive, so he has had to find new strategies to confuse the enemy.

In a trench on the Eastern Front, a Ukrainian mortar team knows that Russia is not only trying to track them with drones, but also is using electronic warfare to try to locate your position.

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The men of the 28th Ukrainian Brigade may have access to 21st century technology: satellites, smartphones and tablets, to help communicate and identify targets. But they are also using a machine from the distant past.

A relic that wouldn’t look out of place in a trench during WWI: an old crank phone.

Countering the technological might of Russia

Vlad and his men pick up the field phone every time they go to fire a mortar. Its dull timbre produces a sound from another era. To make outgoing calls, they have to wind a crank. It’s like a scene from a black and white movie.

Vlad grabs the cables that extend to other nearby trenches. He says it’s the most secure means of communication and “it’s impossible to intercept.”

He says that Russian electronic warfare systems can detect and intercept mobile phones and radios, but pointing to his old field phone, Vlad says, “This technology is very old, but it works very well.”

Ukrainian soldiers are aware of Russian capabilities to intercept or jam communications.

Russia’s conventional forces may have fared poorly so far and suffered heavy losses, but that’s not to say the Kremlin doesn’t have at its disposal some of the world’s most advanced electronic warfare systems: invisible means of track an enemy and to intercept or jam communications.

With these systems in fixed defensive positions, Ukrainian advances will be more dangerous and difficult: Russian Zoopark radars can locate artillery fire, Zhitel vehicles detect, track and jam radio frequencies, and Borisoglebsk-2 can disrupt satellite communications. like GPS.

the age of drones

Ukrainian engineers developed the Sirko surveillance drone, which seeks to stay hidden from Russian eyes. (GETTY IMAGES).

Russia’s use of electronic warfare is also making it difficult for the Ukrainian military to use drones, a key tool for getting an aerial view of the battlefield.

At another location on the Eastern Front, Oleksii and his 59th Brigade drone intelligence unit use the cover of a bombed-out building to fly their small Chinese commercial drone to identify Russian positions.

In the early stages of the war, Ukraine seemed to be more adept at using drones. But Oleksii says that now “the sky is full” with all kinds of drones. He says that the Russians are also using the same models, but they have more of them. He though he believes they “care less”.

Oleksii says he has already lost five small Chinese-made drones and that his brigade “could lose three to four drones a day.” He says the enemy has access to radio electronic warfare stations and anti-drone guns that “can transmit jamming and disrupt communications” to disable their drones.

But in capable hands, he adds, a small commercial drone like a Mavic can last “two to three weeks.”

They try to avoid detection by using encryption and modifying the geolocation of their drones. The one who is flying over the Russian trenches uses a VPN in Australia, which makes it look like he is flying over that continent. But he says that disguise doesn’t always work.

On disadvantage

By contrast, Ukraine’s efforts to shoot down Russian drones may turn out to be more rudimentary, as we witness in another position.

Drones have become key tools during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers point to a drone flying high in the distance. It’s an Orlan, a larger Russian-made drone that can carry out surveillance or intercept communications. This time he is inspecting nearby Ukrainian defensive positions. to direct artillery fire.

We hear the hiss of shells before seeing the impact and smoke billowing in the distance.

The response of the nearby Ukrainian soldiers is to open fire into the sky with their automatic rifles. But the Russian drone is too high. In this case, your fire is useless.

At a nearby command center, Bohdan, from Ukraine’s 10th Brigade, expresses his frustration at not being able to do more. He says Russian drones fly “every day, every hour, every second. They have the resources for that. We make war on it, but not as much as we’d like.”

However, the big screen behind him shows that Ukraine can still do the same, although they must now regard their drones as disposable warfare items.

We see a live video feed from a Ukrainian drone hovering over the nearby trenches. Russia may have an advantage in electronic warfare and more drones, posing a challenge to Ukraine’s next attack.

But Russia has still not been able to gain control of the sky or defeat Ukraine’s resistance and ingenuity.

Source: Elcomercio