Ukraine Might Have a Secret Aerial Jammer

Drones with pulse jammers may have foiled Russian defenses in Sochi

A new kind of aerial radar-jammer may have accompanied a formation of Ukrainian Ukroboronprom An-196 attack drones across the Black Sea to strike an oil depot in the Russian coastal city of Sochi, 350 miles from the front line in eastern Ukraine, overnight from July 23 to 24. (See video above.)

Call it the Ukrainian answer to the American Boeing EA-18G Growler manned jamming jet.

“The night attack on Sochi involved an unknown type of drone,” one Russian blogger reported, “which instead of explosives carried a compact electronic warfare system of pulse suppression.”

“Its key feature,” the blogger continued, is that “the payload does not cause direct damage, but destabilizes the operation of communication and navigation systems within a radius of 1.5 kilometers,” or one mile.