ISW calls Ukraine disabling over 20 Russian missiles with EW stations a turning point

Bukovel-AD, Ukrainian Electronic Warfare system targeting drones. Photo: Spetstechnoexport

The disabling of over 20 missiles with the help of “active countermeasures by means of electronic warfare” may be a turning point in Ukraine’s electronic warfare capabilities.

Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details: Military analysts say Ukrainian EW assets were usually credited with disabling Russian drones but not missile systems.

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ISW has previously assessed that Russia’s strike campaign against Ukraine and Ukrainian adaptation to counter new Russian strike systems are part of a broader tactical and technological attack-defence race between long-range aviation and air defence capabilities.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, noted that the Russian missile strike on 13 January was similar to the strike that Russian forces launched on 8 January and in previous times. The Institute for the Study of War believes that Ihnat’s words indicate that Ukrainian forces can recognise patterns in repeated Russian attacks and, accordingly, introduce innovations and adapt to them.

Earlier: 

Over 20 Russian missiles and drones failed to reach their targets during Russia’s combined air attack on Ukraine on the morning of 13 January because they exploded mid-flight, landed in unpopulated areas, or met with an effective response from Ukrainian electronic warfare.

To quote the ISW’s Key Takeaways on 13 January: 

• A recent video appeal by a Serbian mercenary addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed discussions about an ongoing “clan war” within the Kremlin and the Russian information space against the backdrop of the Russian presidential campaign.
• In-fighting and factional dynamics within the Kremlin are not new phenomena and do not indicate the imminent collapse of Putin’s regime, particularly because power verticals are the foundation of Putin’s regime.
• Russian forces launched a medium-sized drone, missile, and air attack against Ukraine on the night of 12-13 January using a strike package similar to recent Russian strike packages.
• Russian forces are reportedly increasingly using chemical weapons in Ukraine in continued apparent violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party.
• A fire destroyed a large warehouse in St. Petersburg belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries on 12 January.
• Russian forces made confirmed advances near Kreminna and Avdiivka amid continued positional engagements along the entire front line.
• Russian forces may be forming air assault brigades within combined arms ground formations as part of ongoing large-scale military reforms.
• Russian officials continue to fund social projects in occupied Ukraine in an effort to integrate these territories further into Russia and create the veneer of an active civil society in occupied areas.

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