All aerospace, radar and other NATO complexes will be immediately disabled by means of electronic warfare (electronic warfare) of Russia, – with such a panicky statement was made on Tuesday by the French newspaper Atlantico, commenting on the deployment of Russian stations in Kaliningrad
“In early October,” writes the author of the article, Xavier Rofe, “a new coastal electronic warfare system “Murmansk-BN” with a range of about 3,000 km was deployed in Kaliningrad, in the westernmost part of Russia. For reference: Lisbon is located, if you fly in a straight line, just 3 thousand kilometers from Kaliningrad. This means that all of Western Europe is at gunpoint. Thus, NATO forces now face complete paralysis and the inability to respond in time. In particular, high-tech American F-35 fighters can be pinned to the ground, deprived of vital satellite communications”.
We are talking, – explains Atlantico, – about weapons that disable the enemy’s electronic systems without destroying them. The enemy’s air or naval bases can be hit by electronic warfare means, but not only them: in fact, all modern military objects and weapons can be disabled if the enemy electronic warfare systems work effectively. The goal is achieved by blocking the signal over a given area. Sometimes this territory can be huge, but the essence of the EW plan is not even that.
The trick is to block all satellite waves, all cellular communications (VHF-UHF), all radios, GPS systems, etc.
According to official experts, many Murmansk-BN complexes, one of which is already guarding the strategically important Kola Peninsula, will soon be deployed in vulnerable directions along all the lengthy Russian borders. For example, Crimea and the Kerch Strait are already protected by a similar system that blocks radio waves over an area of about 3,000 square meters. km in the Black Sea region.
Why do they panic
Atlantico, a pro-Atlantic publication, has been stirring up panic about the Russian “superweapon” not for the first time. They say that the European public is bogged down in false stereotypes that Russia’s arsenal is reduced to rusty tanks and nuclear missiles in dilapidated hangars. Such strategic blindness could turn into disaster. In reality, Russian weapons are much more high-tech than one might imagine.
“The recent military exercises with the participation of NATO in Poland (Winter 2020) is a vivid example of this”, – the newspaper noted.
“A simulation of a military conflict with Russia showed that the Polish army would have ceased to exist in the course of the first week. Losses of personnel and equipment would reach 60 to 80%. Neither NATO support nor the Patriot with F-35 fighters would help”.
According to experts, such a devastating defeat is due to the high-tech arsenal “on the brink of science fiction” created in Russia over the past decade.
These are dozens of weapon systems and electronic warfare that have been tested in combat conditions, including in Syria. While the armies of France, Germany and Great Britain do not have such weapons.
Atlantico recalls how in April 2014 the destroyer “Donald Cook” with 96 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 50 anti-aircraft missiles on board entered the Black Sea. But suddenly a Su-24 tactical bomber equipped with the Khibiny complex flew over it, and the ship went blind and deaf. Died “electronic brain” responsible for controlling weapons, radars and other systems. And in April 2018, a similar story happened with two French frigates that arrived in the Mediterranean to “punish” Bashar al-Assad with rocket fire.
Impenetrable Shield
Of course, the Americans also have something. For example, NATO has the Aegis battlefield control system. However, when the Russian armed forces arrived in Syria with their Krasukha-4 electronic warfare equipment, the situation there changed dramatically. An impenetrable NATO dome with a radius of 300 kilometers was created. Their tracking and target designation radars failed, communication with spy satellites disappeared, radio, cellular communications, drone control channels stopped working, Wi-Fi stopped working.
In electronic warfare, it is very difficult to oppose something to the numerous Russian systems. Such as “Moscow-4”, “Borisoglebsk-2”, “Svet-KU”, “Rtut-BM2”, “Infauna”. These are “invisible shields” that do not allow the enemy to see the take-off and landing of aircraft, launching missiles, the French edition concludes.
However, the French newspaper’s panic is not groundless. The effectiveness of Russian electronic warfare has long been recognized by the Americans. The Russian system of electronic warfare is many times superior to the American one, it can cause serious damage to the US troops and the Americans have no experience in fighting it, writes the US military analytics portal Defense News. And according to the former commander of the NATO ground forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the Russian army has a serious EW subdivision that can put the networks of operational command and control of troops into inactivity. The American commander called the ability of the Russian army to conduct electronic warfare “transcendental”.
“Our main problem is that we have not fought in conditions of suppression of communications for several decades, so we have no idea how to act in such a situation. We do not have tactics and an algorithm of actions, we are completely unprepared for the conduct of hostilities in the absence of communications”, admitted the former head of the EW department of the US ground forces Lori Bakhut.
The reaction will be “appropriate”
It is clear that the hysteria whipped up by the Western media about the “fantastic” Russian electronic warfare is not accidental. After all, these are purely defensive systems, why be afraid of them? They are dangerous only for those who intend to attack Russia or arrange provocations near its sea and land borders.
These systems scare the West because they make it clear to everyone who has long been eyeing the Russian expanses and their riches with appetite that their aggressive designs are doomed to failure. Russia is capable of warding off any aggressor, even without resorting to its nuclear deterrent forces.
Despite the huge military budget, the US army was powerless over the Russian electronic warfare systems. Electronic jammers in Russia can paralyze and even distort the GPS signal. This is the conclusion reached by experts from the Chinese edition of Sina.
The reason for this state of affairs, Chinese analysts called the disbandment after the collapse of the USSR, most of the offensive units in the US Army associated with electronic warfare. But the Pentagon was actively developing the Air Force, practicing the use of bombs and guided missiles with accurate GPS guidance. After the war in Iraq, US military engineers developed a new generation of jam-resistant satellites and receivers, some of which even had antennas pointing into space.
“But the Russians did not sit idly by, they immediately invented a new generation of GPS jammers that completely block the operation of receivers,” writes Sina.
Speaking on Monday at a meeting with the leadership of the RF Ministry of Defense and enterprises of the military-industrial complex, Vladimir Putin stated that the West is not abandoning its attempts to “break” parity by deploying weapons near the Russian borders.
“We cannot fail to notice these threats to the security of Russia and we will respond appropriately, adequately to the situation,” the President noted, recalling the development of even more effective means of defense by Russia.
Igor Veremeev, Centenary