Deafening success: Precision equipment for electronic warfare continues flowing to Russia from the West despite sanctions

Another challenging task is dealing with enemy devices that use frequency hopping. In order to jam these devices, one must understand how the enemy transmitter’s frequency changes so that its behavior can be replicated. This requires creating a nearly identical signal.

Aviation EW systems also rely on high-precision equipment to protect aircraft from radar detection. These systems are capable of sending decoy signals in response to radar pulses, effectively confusing enemy radar and preventing them from accurately pinpointing the aircraft's location and speed.

For more effective performance, militaries tend to opt for significantly more expensive equipment, with pricing influenced by factors such as frequency stability, bandwidth, and the number of channels. Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz and the U.S.-based Keysight are among the leading manufacturers of this high-end technology. In its Russian-language manual, Technologies and Methods for Generating Signals in EW Systems, Keysight highlights the benefits of its signal generators: high-frequency switching speeds, a wide dynamic range, and low noise levels.

Keysight noise generators are priced 8-10 times higher than those of the company’s competitors. The manufacturer justifies the premium by the devices’ “special” features, which include electronic calibration and an advanced thermal compensation system. These capabilities enable Keysight’s devices to function autonomously for extended periods — without human intervention — military expert Leonid Dmitriev explained in an interview with The Insider.

A signal generator from Swiss manufacturer AnaPico, a company that became part of Keysight earlier this year, is priced at €34,000 ($37,500). Keysight’s spectrum analyzers can cost more than €40,000 ($44,000) each, while Rohde & Schwarz analyzers are priced at around €33,000 ($36,000). Many advanced signal generators depend on microchips. (The Insider has previously reported on how microchips are being illicitly supplied to Russia.)

Rohde & Schwarz products can solve any radio engineering task in modern warfare, Ukrainian aviation and radio-electronics expert Anatolii Khrapchynskyi told The Insider:

“Most of this equipment operates in a range from 8 kHz to 40 GHz, covering the main needs for radio monitoring, radar, and communication systems. It can be used both for performance analysis and tuning — it can also act as a high-precision component in an advanced system.

These generators, priced between $6,000 and $50,000, are not designed for ‘trench electronic warfare’ but rather for sophisticated, large-scale systems. A controlled generator can produce a signal with such precise form, type, and density that, when paired with the appropriate amplifier, it creates an almost impenetrable electronic warfare system.”

In wartime, installations equipped with this technology can disrupt low-orbit satellites, simulate missile launches to deceive the enemy, and engage in spoofing — altering GPS coordinates. “One only needs to recall the navigation problems experienced by European aircraft near [Russia’s] Kaliningrad Region,” Khrapchynskyi notes. “In Russian Orlan drones, this technology may have been used to intercept mobile phone signals. Undoubtedly, this equipment will also be used to protect large and strategically important sites, such as airports, military bases, and command posts.”