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Russia Is Attacking US Forces With Electronic Weapons In Syria, General Says (yahoo.com)
john of sparta shares a report from Yahoo: American forces in Syria are increasingly facing attacks from Russian and Syrian electronic warfare weapons, as Moscow uses the conflict to test its future arsenal. General Raymond Thomas, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said that Syria has become "the most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet," Breakingdefense.com reported. Speaking at a geospatial intelligence conference in Florida, Gen. Thomas said that Russian and Syrian regime forces "are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our [EC-130 aircraft]."
The Lockheed Martin EC-130 Compass Call is one of America's most advanced electronic warfare weapons. Based on the C-130 Hercules, the plane was developed to disrupt enemy communications, radar and command operations. The craft's presence in Syrian skies gives Russia the chance to test its weapons against the best the U.S. has to offer, whether directly or through its Syrian allies. Earlier this month, four anonymous officials told NBC News that Russia has also been regularly targeting smaller U.S. surveillance drones. One of those quoted said Russian operations were having a significant impact on U.S. capabilities. The sophisticated attacks were even successful against encrypted signals and anti-jamming devices, the official said. Slashdot reader john of sparta adds, "Well, it's war; not a surprise..."
The Lockheed Martin EC-130 Compass Call is one of America's most advanced electronic warfare weapons. Based on the C-130 Hercules, the plane was developed to disrupt enemy communications, radar and command operations. The craft's presence in Syrian skies gives Russia the chance to test its weapons against the best the U.S. has to offer, whether directly or through its Syrian allies. Earlier this month, four anonymous officials told NBC News that Russia has also been regularly targeting smaller U.S. surveillance drones. One of those quoted said Russian operations were having a significant impact on U.S. capabilities. The sophisticated attacks were even successful against encrypted signals and anti-jamming devices, the official said. Slashdot reader john of sparta adds, "Well, it's war; not a surprise..."
The craft's presence in Syrian skies gives Russia the chance to test its weapons against the best the U.S. has to offer...
At the same time it also gives the US a sample of the best Russia can throw at them and the effect that has on US tactics which have relied on battlefield networking, large numbers of remote controlled drones and the apparent assumption that these communications will never be significantly disrupted or even completely disabled. Let's just hope that this lesson will be better heeded than those learned by the Americans who fought the Japanese in the run-up to WWII. Their reports were filed away or ignored by the Pentagon which ignored the threat because the reports contradicted their preconceptions about the Japanese.
From the beginning of the Russian attack against Ukraine, the Russian military has been using and testing its electronic warfare capabilities. They were even able to track an app Ukrainian artillery units were using to calculate their fire and use it to target the units.
The OSCE monitors routinely report their UAVs are being jammed while over Russian-occupied territory. Also, these monitors report on a regular basis the presence of Russian mobile electronic jamming vehicles.
Fortunately, as was stated further up, this jamming has given us a look into Russian procedures and allows us to find ways around it or at the least, to mitigate it. As a result, Ukrainian military units are able to communicate and coordinate their activities to target Russian military personnel on Ukrainian territory.
How dare they interrupt our electronic weapons with their own electronic weapons!
If this is such a concern, I've got a strategy the US can use to combat this: Get the hell out of Syria.
It's ridiculous to be offended/upset that someone is using countermeasures against the drones being used against them or their allies.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The US actions in Syria aren't self serving, it only tried to serve Israel/Saudi Arabia and their self fulfilling paranoia vis a vis Iran. It would have been far cheaper for the US to just stay out of it and only fight Isis in Iraq (and actually fighting them straight from the start). Arming ISIS and then subsequently "bombing" them and then finally actually bombing them when their former pet dogs became a little too rabid has done nothing but bring grief to the US. It didn't even help their Sunni allies, Saudi Arabia is off worse in some ways.
In the end only Israel is laughing as it's hold on the Golan is strengthened. The US was played.