Ukraine’s electronic warfare fight against Russian drones is so chaotic that its own are getting caught in the crossfire

This article by Sinéad Baker was originally published in Business Insider.

With too many drones in the air and only so many radio frequencies, Ukrainian soldiers sometimes accidentally jam their own drones trying to stop Russian ones, Business Insider learned.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces who has operated strike and reconnaissance drones, told Business Insider that his unit was recently the victim of friendly electronic warfare, or just EW.

He said it’s something that often happens with the big reconnaissance drones that both sides use because many of Ukraine’s drones “use the same frequencies that enemy drones use.” That’s been the case, for instance, with Russia’s Zala recon and strikedrones and Ukraine’s Shark reconnaissance drones.

“When friendly EW tries to jam Zala, it also jams Shark,” he said.

Ukraine uses the Shark to identify targets that other Ukrainian weaponry can then destroy, including Russian artillery convoys, and Russia uses its Zala to identify Ukrainian targets and attack Ukrainian assets like tanks and artillery.

The Shark drone is developed by Ukrainian company Ukrspecsystems, and its newest version has a range of 260 miles, while the Zala is made by Russia’s Zala Aero.

The huge volume of drones used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in an electronic warfare battle, with jamming and more flooding frequencies with noise, cutting connections, and confusing enemy drones, frustrating operators attempting to use them for strikes and surveillance. It’s fueled new developments in EW, as well as efforts to get around electronic warfare, such as fiber-optic drones and AI-enabled systems.

Zhluktenko said there are so many drones in the sky that Ukrainian soldiers have to try to coordinate when they fly drones, to try to avoid the accidental jamming of their own side’s drones. In a single one-mile stretch of the front line, there might be more than 60 drones in the sky, he said.

Ukrainian soldiers with strike drones, July 2023. (Wikimedia Commons via ArmyInform)

In his area, a roughly three-mile section, there might be around three large Russian reconnaissance drones in flight at any given time. There’s a lot of other stuff in the air though, and that can make it hard to tell what belongs to which side.

Zhluktenko previously told BI that it can be so difficult to tell the drones apart that infantry soldiers sometimes panic and jam everything with their electronic warfare systems. He said: “They literally click all of the frequencies to be jammed because they’re scared.”

Another Ukrainian drone operator, who previously spoke to BI on the condition of anonymity, said the confusion sometimes causes soldiers to try to shoot down every drone they see.

As Western militaries look to adopt small drones in new ways, concerns about battlefield confusion are a priority. Combat footage from Ukraine has shown troops frantically questioning if the drone buzzing overhead is on their side. With some dropping grenades or screaming out of the sky and exploding, soldiers may have only moments to sort that out.

Drone usage is higher in this war than in any other conflict in history. Among these systems are the more traditional large reconnaissance drones, emerging small strike drones, and drones with weaponry like firearms and grenades. These weapons are designed to attack and gather information on the enemy and guide other weapons and combat forces.

The prolific employment of drone technology has sparked an innovation race between Russia and Ukraine to create new types of drones and drone technologies. On both sides, domestic innovation and defense engineering are fueling developments, as is support from foreign partner nations.

Related: Army and Marines embrace kamikaze drones for ground combat

Ukraine is relying on drones as it faces Russia’s far-larger military and deals with shortages in Western-provided weaponry.

Drones are something that Ukraine can make itself in large quantities, with efforts ranging from huge companies to small outfits in people’s garages. It’s a key part of Ukraine’s growing domestic defense industry, which also includes homegrown missiles, air defense systems, and ground robots.

Ukraine said it made 2.2 million drones last year, and it aims to make four million this year. But Russia also sees value in drones and is investing heavily in boosting output. It uses them at the front lines, as well as to complicate its strike packages when targeting Ukrainian cities, mixing one-way attack drones with missiles.

The huge volume of drones has led to some irregularities in battle, such as panic jamming. It’s also resulted in drone operators sometimes accidentally being able to see each other’s drone feeds, allowing them to unintentionally pick up intelligence about what enemy drones are doing and collecting.

There are just so many drones and only so many operating frequencies that drone feeds can get switched without them doing anything. Ukrainian and Russian troops are working through these issues in real time, and lessons learned from the fight may shape future wars.

Feature Image: Mobile groups of National Guard of Ukraine hunt for Russian drones, December 2023. (National Guard of Ukraine Facebook)

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