A video shared on Telegram by a Ukrainian military blogger that purports to show a drone strike on a Russian tank could worry Ukraine.
The video, which bears the insignia of Ukraine’s 60th Mechanized Brigade, appears to show a shot at a “T-72B3M obr 2022 tank with a large improvised electronic warfare system,” said Rob Lee, a senior researcher in policy at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Ukraine regularly uses drones to attack Russian tankshitting trenches, destroy equipmentAnd target soldiers. Ukraine also claims to have used maritime drones to target Russian warships in the Black Sea.
But this seemingly rudimentary Russian electronic warfare (EW) system could prove very problematic for Ukrainian drone operators.
Electronic warfare uses the electromagnetic spectrum, including signals such as radio, infrared or radar, to disrupt an enemy’s ability to use those signals itself, according to defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
It has played an increasingly important role in the war due to the widespread use of drones by both sides.
But even though Russia has enjoyed an advantage in electronic warfare so far, such systems are often not installed on front-line armored vehicles, making them easy to attack, reports recently said. Ukrainian soldiers told the New York Times.
This is supported by a February report from the Institute for the Study of War think tank, which said Russian military bloggers had criticized Russian commanders for not equipping armored vehicles with these systems.
What is even more troubling for Ukraine is that although the T-72B3M system may appear somewhat rudimentary to the untrained eye, it appears effective.
Lee shared images of the tank and its electronic warfare system which, he wrote, “effectively countered large numbers of FPVs operating with different frequencies before being shut down.”
Russia’s advance in electronic warfare has also strained Ukraine’s supply of drones, which have until now been crucial to its war effort – so much so that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in February that it would create a separate branch of the armed forces dedicated to electronic warfare. unmanned systems.
Ukrainian soldiers told the Times that it was extremely difficult for them to obtain new drones, despite government promises to provide more, and that most were obtained through donations from volunteers.
However, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that the UK would send 10,000 drones to Ukraine to help boost its stockpiles.
businessinsider
