🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Russia likely has a "powerful jammer" based at its Black Sea Fleet hub in Sevastopol, according to a new report, as Russia appears to funnel resources into shielding its key Crimean base from Ukrainian attacks.
Several reported errors in the positioning of civilian ships around southern Crimea and evidence from radar satellite imagery suggests that Moscow is using a potent jamming device in Sevastopol, Naval News reported on Tuesday.
Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, has become a near-constant target for Ukrainian attacks, often using uncrewed vehicles in the air and sea. Kyiv has vowed to reclaim the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine, which houses Russia's Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.
Russia has repeatedly said it has intercepted Ukrainian drones using electronic warfare (EW), weaponizing the electromagnetic spectrum. In a drone-dominant conflict like the war in Ukraine, EW is one of the many key capabilities both sides hope to wield more effectively than their adversary.
In recent weeks, numerous surface vessels based in the harbor at Sevastopol have registered their location as the international airport around 5 miles north of the harbor, according to Naval News. Interference visible in images captured by a satellite belonging to the European Space Agency earlier this month also indicates Russian jamming, the outlet reported.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and European Space Agency for comment via email.
Experts suggested back in July 2023 that Russia's military had placed temporary GPS jammers on at least one of its warships ahead of a high-profile naval parade in St. Petersburg.
It is "entirely feasible" that Moscow would opt to use jammers and has done so prior to the war in Ukraine, Samuel Bendett, of the Center for Naval Analyses, told Newsweek at the time.
"The Russians have been doing electronic warfare for a long time, and they do it pretty well," according to James Black, assistant director of the Defence and Security research group at the European branch of the RAND Corporation think tank. EW capabilities can be useful offensive tools, but also key for defense when there are uncrewed vehicles flying around, and Moscow inherited a hefty number of EW systems from the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin has been speaking quite openly "not just about shooting down Ukrainian drones," Black told Newsweek on Wednesday, but also how its using EW to electronically suppress the uncrewed vehicles.
Although he couldn't comment on jamming capabilities in Sevastopol, Black noted that Russian commanders and officials have made no secret about Moscow defending "key locations" across Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Russia has said it has intercepted Ukrainian drones with both air defense systems and EW, including during a spate of Ukrainian kamikaze drone attacks on the Russian capital, Moscow.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more