Ukraine's Drone Jamming Turns Cross-Dnipro Into Robotic Kill Zone of Russians

Contrary to the negative stories from some western news outlets which interviewed a few shell shocked troops and then extrapolated to draw  conclusions about the entire Dnipro front, Ukrainian forces appear to be having notable success in that area. 

It is probably prudent to assume, as in war everywhere, that there are good and bad days, but the performance of Ukraine's electronic warfare troops and its Marines, appears consistent. JL 

David Axe reports in Forbes:

Ukraine's jamming Russian drones with electromagnetic interference is preventing the Russians on the left bank from pushing back a small contingent of Ukrainian marines that, since mid-October, has been on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Some foreign media characterized the battle for Krynky as a “suicide mission” for the marines from the Ukrainian 35th Brigade. In fact, it’s the Russians from the 810th Marine Brigade, the 104th Air Assault Division and attached army troops who are dying in unsustainable numbers. The result, nearly three months into the fight, is the Ukrainians “persist in expanding their bridgehead,” according to Center for Defense Strategies.

Ukrainian troops are jamming the Hell out of Russian drones on the left bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.

The electromagnetic interference is preventing the Russians on the left bank from pushing back a small contingent of Ukrainian marines that, since mid-October, has been clinging to the fishing village of Krynky.

Kyiv’s forces “extensively use UAVs near Krynky,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies explained. “Their E.W. units interfere with the adversary's use of UAVs.”

Ukrainian and foreign media last month characterized the battle for Krynky as a “suicide mission” for the marines from the Ukrainian 35th Brigade. In fact, it’s the Russians from the 810th Marine Brigade, the 104th Air Assault Division and attached army troops who are dying in unsustainable numbers.

Ukraine’s explosives-laden quadcopters—both single-use first-person-view models and reusable bomber models including the heavy, night-flying Baba Yaga—are everywhere all the time over and around Krynky. Meanwhile, Russia’s own drones often can’t even get off the ground owing to Ukrainian jamming.

“UAVs of the Ukrainian armed forces operate aggressively and en masse,” Russian correspondent Alexander Sladkov explained on social media. “It is difficult and dangerous for us to move in the front line and rear areas, because the enemy attacks our vehicles, guns and infantry groups using FPV [drones] and comfortably directs artillery at our roads and positions.”

“And at night, heavy ‘copters mine our paths and roads, hindering the movements of our troops,” Sladkov added. “We are ready to confront the Ukrainian armed forces in the air, in the range of enemy drones, but we are hampered by the massive use of electronic warfare.”

We don’t know for sure which E.W. systems Ukraine has deployed around Krynky, but it’s possible to guess. In response to Russian drone operations over eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region starting in 2014, Ukrainian firm Proximus developed a new truck-mounted jammer called the Bukovel-AD.

The $50,000 system can detect drones up to 60 miles away and, once they close to 30 miles or so, scramble the radio links that connect the drones to their operators on the ground.

By 2021 Ukrainian forces reportedly possessed dozens of Bukovel-ADs. Russian attacks have destroyed several of the vehicles, but it’s a safe bet Proximus is working overtime to build replacement systems—and to expand the overall force. Kyiv has reinforced its Bukovel-ADs with unspecified drone-jammers it has gotten from its foreign allies.

Russia has its own jammers, of course. But Ukrainian forces systematically have targeted the bigger installations. And the smaller E.W. systems—the backpack RP-377s that Russian crews mount on their tanks and fighting vehicles—don’t seem to work farther than a few tens of feet.

There are many videos on social media depicting Ukrainian FPV drones striking RP-377-equipped vehicles. In at least one case, a drone struck a vehicle on its RP-377.

The result, nearly three months into the Krynky fight, is that the Ukrainians aren’t just hanging on along the left bank, they “persist in expanding their bridgehead,” according to Center for Defense Strategies.