Another look at Russia’s radio-electronic combat - TTG

In October 2015 I put up a post largely about the Richag-AV and Krasukha-4 jamming systems then appearing with the Russian forces moving into Syria. It sparked a good discussion that cut through a lot of the techno-hype. One thing that became clear was that Russia developed and employed a broad family of radio-electronic combat (REC) technologies. Another point made was that these jamming technologies do not form an impenetrable force field. They work together as a “system of systems” to create an extremely hostile electro-magnetic environment for enemy weapons and surveillance systems. It’s not voodoo magic.

As a review of this subject, South Front put out an excellent summary of Russian REC capabilities. Although the article has a sensational title, “Ultra-Secret Weapon that Allows Russia to Assume His Supremacy in Electronic War in Syria” and it has been translated from Romanian to French and then to English, it is both readable and informative.

To continue the review, I took a look at some of the stories out there about the Cook/Su-24 incident. They run the gamut. A lot of the stories seem to conflate two different ECM systems. The Su-24 accounts from the Cook describe a single, basket-like pod under the belly of the fighter-bomber. Other stories describe the Khibiny as torpedo-like pods attached to the wing tips of many of the newer generation Russian aircraft, but not the Su-24. The Su-24 mounted system supposedly shut down, degraded or jammed the Aegis radars and/or fire control systems, but not the engines of the Cook. The wing tip mounted Khibiny system mounted on newer Russian aircraft is said to jam the ability of missiles to lock on and hit the aircraft. Sounds like two different ECM systems to me.

Another ECM incident involved a drone flown out of Syria towards Israel. The drone "deflected" two Iron Dome missiles and one missile fired by an Israeli F-16. This last incident is from a blog by Brad Cabana, a Canadian who posted reliable info during the louder parts of the war in Ukraine along with a thought provoking story of an incident surrounding the coup attempt in Turkey. 

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“In fact, Erdogan was scheduled to meet in Moscow with Russian President Putin just two days before the coup. However, all that came to a sudden end when Erdogan was spirited out of his vacation home just prior to an attempt on his life by a platoon of Turkish special forces. Somehow he had gotten wind of it, boarded his jet, and jettisoned off toward Turkey's capital. While enroute to the capital his plane was "locked onto" by two Turkish F-16's. Despite locking onto Erdogan's jet the Turkish fighter pilots could not fire and bring it down - for whatever reason. The bottom line is that al the evidence points toward a very important Russian intervention in the coup - to stop it that is. It appears that Russian intelligence intercepted the coup plotter's communications and plans, alerted Erdogan in advance, and saving his life in the process. It likely also proved very clearly to Erdogan who his friends were, and who they were not. In any case, the mysterious escape from the lethal missiles of those two Turkish F-16s is really what this article is about.

Funny enough, Erdogan's saving grace seems to be a part of another trend that has raised its head for at least the last few years. Simply put, the Russians have developed technology that renders all missile systems, nuclear or conventional, useless. In November, 2014 the first high profile incident occurred when a Russian SU-24 fighter bomber shut down all systems on the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea. The only armament the plane carried was a small basket - an important little basket known as "Khibiny" - perhaps named after the Russian mountain of the same name. In any case, the entire state-of-the-art destroyer was rendered unable to defend itself while the SU-24 flew eleven simulated bombing runs over it before flying off. The Cook's Aegis system (most modern US defence system) was shut down completely. 

Then, just three weeks ago a military drone entered Israeli airspace from Syria. The Israeli military fired two Patriot missiles at the drone, but the deadly accurate missiles could not hit the slow and plodding drone. Then an Israeli fighter pilot fired an air-to-air missile at the drone, but the missile would not strike it. It appears quite obvious that the Russian drone had on board a system similar to the Khibiny electronic warfare device that shut down the Cook. However, this system appears to not jam the firing systems, but just the missiles themselves. That would be a variant of the system and essentially render anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets obsolete. It seems clear the Russians used the air-tight "Iron Dome" Israeli anti-missile system as a test for this technology. Not a bad choice considering Israel's small land mass and therefore concentrated air defence systems. Or, in other words, no better place to test it in the world.” (Rock Solid Politics)

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Cabana’s account of Erdogan owing his life to Russian ECM is interesting, but I haven’t found any other accounts of the incident. It might be true. It might be myth. Perhaps some of our august fellow correspondents can shed some light on this story.

I did find several other references to this last incident that corroborate Brad Cabana’s account. This sounds like a well planned field test of a Russian ECM system. I’m sure there were some Russian REC technicians shouting “Eureka” at the results of this experiment. I’m also pretty damned sure there were a lot of Israeli military officers and politicians crying “Ooooh Shiiit! We’re scrooowed!” It doesn’t take much imagination to understand the ramifications of just the possibility of such a lightweight, low power ECM becoming available to Hezbollah missile forces.

TTG 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-not-hezbollah-sent-drone-into-israel-report/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

https://www.rt.com/news/351844-israel-drone-missiles-intercept/

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/israel-almost-shot-down-russian-drone-17390

 

Comments

[charly]

Maybe the Americans build a back door into the F16 and the Russians got the key. Or they just hacked the board-computer.

[Old Microbiologist]

I have been following this with some delight for a while now. There are a lot more incidents than mentioned here. There have been several tests of the various systems both in the Black Sea and in Kaliningrad.

For example all air raffia control in Sweden was jammed last year: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russia-blamed-bringing-down-swedish-air-traffic-control-test-electronic-warfare-capabilities-1554895

And again ins Syria: http://osnetdaily.com/2015/10/russian-jamming-system-blocks-all-nato-electronics-inside-bubble-600-km-in-diameter-over-syria/

And several time the same Donald Cook was played with near Kaliningrad: http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=80360

And of course in Ukraine: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31146595

From what I can tell the US and its allies have failed to anticipate these developments having underestimated the Russians for years now. Russia has been somewhat sparing in its use of these systems I am sure want I get to keep the technology a mystery for as long as possible. Countermeasures will take perhaps over 10 years for the US to develop if they start on it today. Given our experiences with the very prolonged weapons development and acquisition process in the US maybe we won't ever have anything similar. Other interesting technologies only tested once against Chechens in 2012 is the portable EMP weapons. The one tested in 2012 was fired from a howitzer but I recall reading somewhere an EMP weapon was tested near Donetsk airport and shut down everything the Ukrainians have. I still vividly remember when the first MIG 29 defected weather US was surprised they were using tube radios and had no digital circuitry then they realize that Soviet aircraft were designed to operate in an EMP rich environment such as nuclear war. I do not know what the Russians are doing in this regard but suspect they have shifted to GAS based chips or similar which are resistant to EMP effects.

My last observation is that a very old WWII era low wavelength radar was used to shoot down a US stealth fighter in Kosovo. So I believe should we be insane enough to fight Russia we will be hoisted by our own petards. Very clearly we have underestimated Russian capabilities.

[visitor]

This brings to mind the sinking of the Coventry during the Falklands war.

From the detailed description of the battle, at some point the Coventry radar had locked on two Argentinian planes flying extremely low and extremely close together -- so close that the radar assumed just one plane was heading towards the ship. When the planes started separating for the final attack, the system was incapable of making sense of a target apparently growing in size, resulting in an error and a reset. By the time the system had rebooted, it was too late.

Could it be that those incidents with the Cook and the Iron Dome are actually computer bugs in the USA/Israeli systems deftly exploited by the Russian in conjunction with their newfangled electronic counter-measures?

Have the Aegis and Iron Dome been used in real, seriously adversarial conditions enough times so that their developers could weed out serious bugs and sources of system/computer crashes? Who knows? A thumb rule of software development is that to uncover the nastiest errors you need to let customers shake and misuse your system -- even the strongest testing suite is not enough. And the description of the Cook/Iron Dome incidents look uncannily like system errors bringing down or messing up with basic defensive capabilities.

And after all, haven't the past few years been rich in examples (e.g. Stuxnet) of cyberwarfare based on zero-day flaws and software faults, and aren't the Russians supposed to be always on the prowl for such exploits?

[paratrop]

The Jack Aubree novels of Patrick O'Brian- like the Hornblower novels of C.S. Forrester - are based on the life of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, and one of the cleverest sea warriors to ever set sail. Read one of his several biographies. Here is his epitaph:

'Here rests in his 85th year Thomas Cochrane Tenth Earl of Dundonald of Paisley and of Ochiltree in the Peerage of Scotland Marquess of Marenham in the Empire of Brazil GCB and Admiral of the Fleet who by his confidence and genius his science and extraordinary daring inspired by his heroic exertion in the cause of freedom and his splended services alike to his own country, Greece, Brazil, Chile and Peru achieved a name illustrious throughout the world for courage, patriotism and chivalry. Born Dec 14 1775. Died Oct 31 1860'

He was buried in Westminster Abbey. His story is that of a rebel who fought the bureacracy of the British Navy at every turn, and usually won.

[Peter AU]

At a couple of places in this video is a little on the Donald Cook incident. putins answer to the interviewer shortly before that section was cut made me think there was something in the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t42-71RpRgI
Then the Russian drone sent to Syria for testing which "inadvertently" fluttered into Israeli airspace.
Looking at videos like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tcTwW2_WrU (Tesla towers) makes me think the Soviet union put a lot into a line of pure scientific research that the US may not have followed, and Russia now has this scientific data base to use in the development of electronic warfare capabilities.

And then a month or two back, Russian MoD then Putin announced that Russian borders were fully protected from any threat from any country or combination of countries.

[turcopolier]

paratroop

Like a number of you I have done a bit of sailing and therefore I am astonished that Patrck O'Brien (pen name) had never been to sea, pl

[William Fitzgerald]

His research of contemporary sources had to have been extraordinary and his prose is wonderful to read.

WPFIII

[turcopolier]

mike and IZ

I have said from the beginning that it was a phony coup. pl

[Andy]

The gap was due to a delay in the deployment of the GHWB which spent a couple months longer in maintenance than was originally planned.

[jld]

Sounds right!
It is very, very, very likely that ANY "exported" armament, be it by the US, Russia or whoever else (French Exocets...) has one or more backdoors.

[Jill]

I spent many wonderful hours with Aubrey and Maturin. Imagine my surprise when I learned the novels are based on Lord Thomas Cochrane as was my beloved Hornblower. As I'm sure you already know that Frederick Maryatt was a midshipman (I think) with Cochrane. Of course, that sent me haring off on biographies of Cochrane and marveling at his life and doings. I think I might have a lingering case of hero worship where Cochrane is concerned.

[Andy]

@Outrage Beyond - Or it could be that the "Rock Solid Politics" blog post which makes these claims, without any evidence, is engaged in uninformed and idle speculation.

ECM locking down a FCS is equivalent to suggesting the Russians could sit off the coast of Florida and somehow remotely turn off the engines of two specific 1995 Toyota Camrys driving on I-95. It's science fiction or a movie McGuffin.

More generally, I'm surprised so many are taking this seriously. These are incredible claims with no evidentiary basis and they deserve skepticism at the very least.

[mike]

Charly -

As an avid salmon fisherman here in the NW, I try to keep up with the latest on their migration habits. The latest theories I have read from the boffins at local University biological departments show it is more than magnetic fields. They also use temperature gradients and a sense of ocean currents to get within a 30 to 60 mile radius of home. Then their sense of smell takes over to get them to the correct river mouth, and from there to the right tributary, and eventually to their specific stream or creek of birth. So they do not depend on a single navigation system like we currently do. I was glad to read a report last year that the Navy is once more teaching celestial navigation at Annapolis.

Regarding birds, the below article from NG states that they use more than just magnetic fields also. Perhaps even landmark recognition like we do.

http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/how-do-birds-navigate/

[Andy]

I've only read "Master and Commander." Like Jill, I loved the Hornblower novels and even the A&E TV series was quite good.

[mike]

Old Microbiologist -

That article on the shutdown of the Swedish ATC system claims it was a cyber attack. Not jamming although they acknowledged problems attributed to Kaliningrad, whether that was intentional jamming or interference was not stated. I recall a story from thirty or more years ago that a Marine EA6B participating in exercises in northern Nevada inadvertently shutdown the Los Angeles ATC system for a short period of time, causing panic on hundreds of civilian airliners awaiting LAX guidance. After that they were banned from using their jammers anywhere stateside.

Those EA6Bs are still in service and have had many upgrades. I believe those plus the new EF-18 Growler have as good or better capabilities than Richag or Khibiny.

But perhaps a bigger problem than Russian jamming is their cyber capabilities. Cyber is a major problem for us and for NATO.

BTW on your reference to GAS, are you referring to Gallium Arsenide?

[turcopolier]

mike

DNA tests for this increase in accuracy all the time. IMO you just want to be an Indian. My estranged sister was pissed at me for telling her she wasn't one. pl

[Outrage Beyond]

So, you think the SU-24 shutting down the Aegis-equipped Donald Cook was less impressive than shutting down a Camry?

Something apparently happened to the Donald Cook in the Black Sea. Was that science fiction?

Was it science fiction when the US (allegedly) used a logic bomb in pipeline control software to blow up a Russian pipeline? That took place a number of years ago and technology keeps getting more complex, which results in new and unknown vulnerabilities.

[J]

TTG, Colonel,

Here's the 1959 article by Will Bohr

Russian Jamming: The Electronic Iron Curtain
April 1959 Popular Electronics
http://www.rfcafe.com/references/popular-electronics/russian-jamming-april-1959-popular-electronics.htm

[mike]

Outrage Beyond -

There are many possible reasons for what MAY have happened to the USS Cook. If one of the radars on the Cook did in fact shut down, it could have been deliberately shut off by the ship captain. Or perhaps the Cook went into a stealth mode that the Russian EW gear was not aware of?

Or maybe it was a software glitch due to overload for the SU-24 flying directly overhead at low altitude. Something similar to what 'visitor' said below about HMS Coventry? How about an operator problem due to high stress from the constant close flyovers? In the past the Navy has fessed up to maintenance issues, software glitches, and operator training issues with Aegis.

Or maybe it is all bragging by the Russian pilot and never happened.
Lots of explanations available.

[mike]

Or perhaps you just do not want to be an Indian. Nothing wrong with it IMHO. Like Ms Warren, I never made a nickel off of it.

[charly]

I don't see how purely "mechanical" weapons can have a back door but i think you are more right with the computer stuff. Always found it funny that ISIS doesn't seem to use any of their Abrams.

[different clue]

Walrus,

Or classical ( Captain Kirk era) Star Fleet Communicators . . . which look a lot like the "flip phones" of today.

[different clue]

Babak Makkinejad,

Is that the gaming philosophy behind the game of Wei Qi / Go?

[Thirdeye]

I remember the MiG 29 incident as well. It was a definite cold shower that led to fiber optic circuit conversions and various other anti-EMP retrofits on American aircraft. We had been quite smug since the Yom Kippur War and the 1978 Lebanese War seemed to indicate a marked superiority of US over Soviet avionics. The Russians must have done something very serious under very trying economic and institutional conditions during the 1980s and 1990s to get where they are today. Not foreseeing it is entirely understandable. I also suspect that the looser constraints on electronics development with ground-based air defense contributed to their emphasis on such systems.

I've read the opinion that the B-2 downing over Kosovo was a result of shortfalls in mission security practices that allowed anticipation of the flight path. But still, stealth vs state-of-the-art ground-based defense might not be a great bet.

[Thirdeye]

Then there are the Aleutian Geese, who strike out over landmark-free water until they make landfall in southern Oregon and northern California. Their little goose brains have no idea how badass they are.