New digital technologies can significantly reduce the spatial, temporal and informational gap between military formations and command and control bodies. And remote, non-contact impact on the entire depth of the enemy's operational formation is becoming the main way to achieve the goal of an operation. What is the specificity of the use of electronic warfare equipment under these conditions? Major General Yuri Lastochkin, Chief of the Electronic Warfare Troops of the RF Armed Forces, answered this and other questions of the "Military-Industrial Courier".
- Yuri Illarionovich, what, in your opinion, characterizes the modern stage of development of electronic warfare, what areas are especially relevant?
- The introduction of modern electronic technologies in the control systems of forces and assets of the Armed Forces of leading foreign countries is an integral part of the implementation of the concept of a rapid global strike. This, like the Doctrine of Combat Operations in a Single Information Space adopted by the US Armed Forces, significantly increases the level of threats to the military security of the Russian Federation and radically changes the nature and content of armed struggle.
The enhancement of the role of electronic warfare is determined by the very task of disorganizing the control of enemy troops and weapons by means of electronic destruction. We must clearly realize that a new area of confrontation has emerged - the information and telecommunications space. The range of tasks of the EW troops is significantly expanding. The effect of using promising electronic warfare means in terms of effectiveness is comparable to high-precision fire damage. Conceptual documents in the field of electronic warfare, approved by the President of the Russian Federation, also aim at this. The country's military-political leadership attaches great importance to improving the electronic warfare system as one of the most important elements of ensuring national security. Today electronic warfare is the most complex intellectual and technical component, especially in hybrid conflicts. This, in turn, requires the creation of fundamentally new means capable of effectively neutralizing the enemy's technological and informational advantage.
- In our country, the basis of the combat component of the electronic warfare system is the electronic warfare troops, created in 2009. What are they?
- Our troops are intended for electronic destruction of enemy targets and complex control of measures to counter technical reconnaissance means, electronic protection of our troops. Consist of command and control bodies, formations, military units and subdivisions of various subordination. EW forces and assets are part of the strategic radio interference system, the Unified System of Comprehensive Technical Control (CPC), sets of EW units of military districts, formations and formations of services and combat arms of the RF Armed Forces.
At present, the main forces and assets are concentrated in the Ground Forces, the Aerospace Forces and the Navy, which make up the interspecific groupings of military districts. In the Airborne Forces, we are represented by electronic warfare units in airborne formations. In the Strategic Missile Forces - by CPC units in each missile army, division, and at the range. Since 2014, the tasks of electronic warfare duty have been solved by the forces and means of radio suppression in the districts.
- What are the priority directions for the development of the electronic warfare system?
- Improvement of electronic warfare technology must be balanced. There is a traditional approach. It involves expanding the range of targets, reducing the type of electronic warfare equipment, unification, increasing protection against precision weapons, mobility and modernization potential. In terms of innovation, I would single out five areas:
deployment of controlled radio suppression fields on enemy territory based on unified small-sized reconnaissance and jamming modules delivered by UAVs;
creation of means of destruction with powerful electromagnetic radiation based on the use of specialized ammunition and mobile complexes;
development of a technique for programmatic impact on highly organized control systems by violating the availability, integrity and confidentiality of information;
introduction of means of imitation of a false radio-electronic situation and misinformation of enemy troops and weapons control systems;
increasing the level of information security of EW control bodies (points), improving decision support algorithms due to a unified control loop of forces and assets.
The implementation of these areas of development of the weapons system will lead to an increase in the volume of tasks solved by electronic warfare.
- This is in combat conditions, as I understand it. And what tasks do the electronic warfare troops solve in peacetime, including your directorate?
- The Directorate of the Chief of the EW Troops of the RF Armed Forces is entrusted with the function of the main radio frequency body of the Russian Defense Ministry, which solves a wide range of tasks. This is ensuring the electromagnetic compatibility of radio electronic means, international legal protection of military radio electronic means (RES), planning the use of radio frequencies and conversion of the radio frequency spectrum.
The relevance of these tasks is determined primarily by the fact that the country is increasingly introducing advanced foreign radio technologies in the frequency bands historically used by the military and state control systems. There are prerequisites for the appearance of unintentional interference with these RES. The consequence may be a disruption in the solution of tasks to ensure the security of the state.
EW UNV specialists defend the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense at the international and national level, participating in the work of the International Telecommunication Union (world and regional radiocommunication conferences), the State Commission on Radio Frequencies, and other organizations that determine the ways of developing radio communications in the world and in our country.
To control the use of the radio frequency spectrum and ensure the electromagnetic compatibility of the military and state control RESs, CPC subdivisions are involved on an ongoing basis. Special attention to significant state events, such as the APEC summit, the St. Petersburg international economic forums, the XXII Olympic and XI Paralympic Winter Games, during which issues were resolved in conjunction with counter-terrorism tasks.
- Lately, there has been a lot of talk about wiretapping, computer attacks, e-mail hacking and other methods of stealing confidential information. How does the RF Ministry of Defense solve the problem of countering foreign technical intelligence services?
- New complexes are being developed and put into operation to protect information on the most informative physical fields of its leakage through technical channels. An example is the Zaslon-REB complex developed in the interests of the electronic warfare troops and successfully passed state tests in 2016. It is designed to guaranteed blocking of all possible channels of leakage of confidential information and to create a “dome of information impenetrability” over the facilities of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The product is fully automated, has a flexible architecture, and provides control of all types of mobile communications and data transmission on the territory of protected objects.
- Are these tasks being practiced in exercises?
- The number of conducted special tactical exercises of subunits and units of electronic warfare over the past four years has doubled. Particular attention is paid to objective control of their effectiveness. For this, the test complexes of the Scientific Research Testing Institute (Electronic Warfare) of the VUNC VVA Air Force and the Interspecies Center for the Training and Combat Use of Electronic Warfare Troops are involved.
Practical testing of promising methods of using the latest electronic warfare equipment was organized during the special research exercise of the electronic warfare troops of the RF Armed Forces "Electron-2016". Imagine that events of this magnitude have not been held at the strategic level since 1979. For the first time, the troops worked out in practice the creation of an electronic warfare group in the strategic direction, ensured the conduct of military-technical experiments prepared by specialists from the NIO MO. The most important result was the recommendations to the military command and control bodies on the organization of interaction, proposals for statutory documents.
- The experience of Syria has shown that multifunctional UAVs today demonstrate very high efficiency in conducting reconnaissance and delivering pinpoint fire strikes. What can be opposed to this threat? What is the level of automation of combat control processes?
- In the armed forces of more than 30 states are in operation, more than 500 types of UAVs have been created or are being developed. Counteraction to them in the RF Armed Forces is carried out using air defense and electronic warfare systems. But today, in fact, the only way to effectively combat small-sized UAVs is electronic warfare.
The automated control systems developed and adopted for supply to the RF Armed Forces significantly increase the degree of use of the combat capabilities of electronic warfare by integrating data from the electronic situation in a single information space and by significantly reducing control cycles. I would say that along with the air defense forces, we are leaders in this area.
In the Office of the Chief of the EW Troops, the Situation Center has been deployed and is functioning. The automation of control in EW formations has been completed, that is, it is now end-to-end - from top managers to executive elements. In the coming years, we plan to complete the integration of electronic warfare resources into the Unified Information Space of the RF Armed Forces and thereby ensure the possibility of using all data on the operational and radio-electronic situation available to the military command and control bodies and federal executive structures interacting with them.
- The Russian defense industry has been under sanctions since 2014. How do you assess the real capabilities of the defense industry enterprises for the production of electronic warfare equipment in the light of the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation on the achievement of 70% equipment of the troops with modern weapons by 2020?
- Sanctions have hit almost all defense industry enterprises. However, to date, the negative impact on the development and production of serial equipment, I believe, has been reduced to almost a minimum. The problem of import substitution is being successfully solved.
Over the years, stable cooperation has developed in two main areas: development and serial production of electronic warfare equipment and command and control systems. The enterprises involved in this are united into two concerns: "Sozvezdiye" and "Radioelectronic Technologies". Both integrated structures are dynamically developing, finding non-standard technical solutions, introducing and mastering new technologies, presenting initiative developments to the military. All this, as well as the successful implementation of the GPV and SDO for many years, allows us to assert that by 2020, the EW troops will be equipped with modern and promising weapons by at least 70 percent.
The presence of two integrated structures in Rab's cooperation does not mean that other enterprises wishing to create highly efficient equipment cannot act as its developers and serial manufacturers. A striking example is the Special Technological Center LLC, which implements a number of innovative options for the development of the weapon system and presents its proactively developed samples for trial operation.
- If we talk about promising products, what are the results and what are the problems?
- State tests, as it were, build a bridge between the activities of the NIO of the RF Ministry of Defense, defense industry enterprises and the operation of weapons and military equipment in the troops, combat work. Over the past three years, more than 30 different types of tests of electronic warfare equipment for efficiency have been carried out (products "Borisoglebsk-2", "Lorandit-M", "Palantin", "Bylina", etc.), RES for electronic protection, ground weapons and airborne devices for visibility. In general, the samples show a fairly high operational suitability.
But, of course, there are problems - both scientific, technical and organizational. In the near future, serious investments are envisaged in the modernization of the existing experimental and testing base. It is planned to create a test complex for assessing the radar and optical signature of promising aircraft and weapons in flight conditions at the NIII (REB) test site. The work is envisaged by the federal target program "Development of the military-industrial complex for the period up to 2020" and the state defense order (OKR "Yegoryevts V", "Laboratory assistant"). Interaction with the Academician Berg Central Research and Development Institute has been organized.
State tests of the complex of climatic equipment have been carried out in the ROC "Yegoryevts V". Equipping the experimental and testing base with it will allow carrying out a full cycle of various checks from a single system position, promptly, with a high degree of reliability.
- The Soviet scientific and technical groundwork, as you know, has long been exhausted. What potential has been developed recently?
- The head organization in this area is the Research Institute (REB) of the VUNC of the Air Force "Air Force Academy named after Professor N. Ye. Zhukovsky and Y. A. Gagarin." Areas of research and production activities cover the entire EW problematics - from the development of conceptual and regulatory documents to support of work at all stages of the life cycle of equipment. In addition, at the federal level, the Research Institute (EW) provides information and analytical support for the work of the Scientific and Technical Council of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation and the Interdepartmental Commission for Planning and Coordination of the Development of the EW system. It is also the basic organization of the interdepartmental coordination scientific and technical council on the problems of the development of the electronic warfare system.
The basis of the scientific potential of the institute is made up of nine dynamically developing military scientific schools, consisting of 19 doctors and more than 130 candidates of sciences. Research is carried out in close cooperation with central military command and control agencies, electronic warfare services of all types (branches) of the RF Armed Forces and military districts, ordering and research organizations of the RF Ministry of Defense, executive authorities, and defense industry enterprises. A full cycle of research "idea" - "prototyping" - "testing" is provided. An example of fruitful cooperation is the organization of close interaction of the Research Institute (REB) of the VUNC VVS "VVA" (Voronezh) with the academic Institutes of Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics (Moscow), Informatics and Automation (St. Petersburg) in the form of "virtual" joint laboratories, the provisions of which are approved President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Chief of the General Staff.
A significant result was the decision support system for the identification of UAVs, which ensures the choice of the optimal method of electronic destruction. The implementation of innovative solutions to reduce the visibility of fifth-generation aircraft will reduce aircraft losses in modern warfare.
The whole range of measures for the construction of electronic warfare troops will significantly increase their contribution to gaining superiority in command and control and the use of weapons. The volume of effectively performed tasks in various strategic areas will increase by two to two and a half times and by 2020 will reach 85 percent. This, in turn, will become the basis for an effective ground-air electronic warfare system capable of neutralizing the enemy's technological advantage in the aerospace and information and telecommunications space.
