Russian systems are “less mobile, less distributed,” Clark told WIRED. Their relatively small number of large systems, Clark said, “wasn’t really worth the fight.”

Moscow’s strategy assumes a relatively static battlespace. In front, they deploy the Infaunaa heavy armored vehicle targeting radio communications. Besides, about 15 miles from the front lines, they send the Learning-3a six-wheeled truck capable of not only jamming cellular networks but intercepting communications and even relay SMS to nearby cell phones. Besides, from a distance of about 180 miles, the size of a fire-truck Krasukha-4 scramble aerial sensors.

“When you’re close to the front, you get electronic weather,” Clark said. “Your GPS won’t work, your cell phone won’t work, your Starlink won’t work.”

This electromagnetic no-man’s-land is what happens when you “barrage,” Clark explained. But there’s a big trade-off, he says. Jamming across the spectrum requires more power, as does jamming over a wider geographic area. The more power a system has, the bigger it needs to be. So you can disrupt all communications in a targeted area, or some communications remotely—but not necessarily both.

Moving Fast and Jamming Things

The Russian military was crippled, early in the war, by poor communications, poor planning, and a general slowness to adapt. However, it has a big head start. “Unfortunately, the enemy has a numerical and material advantage,” a representative for UP Innovations, a Ukrainian defense technology startup, told WIRED in a written statement.

Ukraine has therefore developed two complementary strategies: build a large number of cheaper EW solutions, and make them iterative and adaptable.

Ukraine’s Bukovel-AD anti-drone system, for example, fits comfortably in the back of a pickup truck. the Ether The system, the size of a suitcase, can detect jamming signals from Russian EW systems—allowing Ukraine to target them with artillery. Ukrainian electronic warfare company Kvertus now makes 15 different anti-drone systems—from drone-jamming backpacks to stationary devices that can be installed on radio towers to intercept incoming UAVs .

When all-out war begins in 2022, Kvertus has one product: a shoulder-mounted anti-drone gun, like the EDM4S. “In 2022, (we are making) ten devices,” Yaroslav Filimonov, CEO of Kvertus, told me when we sat in his Kyiv offices in March. “In 2023 it was hundreds. Now? It’s thousands.”