The Silent War:

Electronic Warfare in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

by WO1 Matt Jones

The conflict in Ukraine has become a critical testing ground for advanced electronic warfare (EW), revealing its fundamental role in modern combat alongside conventional operations. The massive proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) by both sides has overwhelmed traditional air defences, making Electronic Attack (EA), specifically jamming, indispensable for countering drones used for surveillance, targeting, and strike missions and thereby maintaining battlefield freedom of manoeuvre.

Effectively countering diverse UAS threats requires a layered EW approach. High-power EA systems, operated by specialized units using techniques like reactive jamming, are essential against longer-range threats such as ISR drones. This must be complemented by equipping frontline personnel with more portable ‘trench’ jammers and drone guns for close-range threats like FPV drones, despite the limitations of handheld systems. A key lesson is the need for EW systems to be rapidly adaptable and reconfigurable in the field to counter adversaries' constant changes in UAS frequencies and control methods, reducing reliance on manufacturers for updates.

The conflict also highlights the vulnerability of traditional, concentrated command structures to modern threats, including long-range precision fires and EW targeting through electronic signatures. Adapting requires moving towards more decentralized, mobile command elements, employing secure communication practices using "bearers of opportunity," and actively avoiding predictable electronic patterns to enhance survivability.

In essence, the war in Ukraine urgently underscores the need for NATO and other forces to significantly prioritise and rapidly deploy EA capabilities, shift land EW focus from predominantly passive surveillance to active effects, and fundamentally adapt command structures and electronic defence practices to the realities of high-intensity, EW-saturated conflict.

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