Russian soldiers combined many jamming devices at different frequency bands into a “Frankenstein monster”-shaped block to install on the roof of the tank.
Video posted by the Ukrainian Azov Brigade last weekend of the ambush of Russian forces near the village of Terny in Donetsk province shows an abandoned T-72B3M tank. The roof of the car was filled with jamming devices connected together to form an electronic warfare system in the style of “Frankenstein’s monster”.
“It looks like something from the movie Mad Max,” said Ukrainian electronic warfare expert Sergii Flash. “There are three plate antennas with jamming capabilities at frequencies of 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz, as well as jamming modules at frequencies of 700-1000 MHz. They are tied together with ropes “.
The electronic warfare system only works when there is power, but not all Russian tanks have auxiliary power, especially older models like the T-72B3M. This means that if the tank turns off its engine, the jammer will also stop working.
However, the T-72B3M operating team had a solution. “They pre-installed generators and batteries to operate this complex,” Flash said.
The ‘Frankenstein monster’ jamming device in the video posted on April 6 by the Azov Brigade. Photo taken from video
During the ambush, Ukrainian forces deployed a series of small FPV drones to attack the Russian convoy, but encountered many difficulties with the opponent’s “Frankenstein monster” electronic warfare system. direction.
“Despite operating on many different frequencies, our FPV drone fell like a gun because of this tank equipped with an ‘electronic warfare monster’,” the Ukrainian expert wrote on Telegram. “Even so, it couldn’t save the car.”
A social network account specializing in reporting on the war in Ukraine said that the jamming complex on the T-72B3M tank intercepted 4 FPV drones, while the remaining ones in the convoy were continuously attacked.
The crew seemed to have tried to get the T-72B3M out of the ambush, but crashed into the body of a previously disabled armored vehicle, causing it to stop. A Ukrainian drone quickly approached and crashed into the tank, forcing Russian soldiers to abandon the vehicle and flee.
According to military expert David Hambling’s Forbes, each electronic warfare device can only respond to one frequency band at a time. To be able to disable an FPV drone, it must emit a jamming signal in the correct frequency band that the device is using to communicate with the operating team. In case the wrong frequency is selected, the drone will easily overtake and crash into the target.
“That means they have to know which frequency bands the enemy is using, or put dozens of different jamming devices on their cars” to be able to block all bands like Russia did, Hambling said.
Ukrainian forces did not reveal what method they used to overcome the electronic warfare barrier on Russia’s “monster” tank. According to expert Hambling, Kiev may have deployed some lines of FPV drones that are resistant to interference, such as those that use cables to communicate with the operating team instead of wireless radio signals, or those that can aim. Automatic targeting without the need for a human operator.
Ukrainian forces ambushed the Russian convoy, confiscating the T-72 in a video posted on April 6. Video: Azov Brigade
Realizing that the tank was still quite intact, the Azov Brigade decided to launch a recovery operation. It took them three nights to bring the vehicle back to the unit, because they had to spend time removing wires from the crawler, destroying anti-tank mines and replacing the power source for this vehicle.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the information.
This is not the first time “Frankenstein monster” weapons and military equipment have been deployed in the Ukrainian battlefield. Minister of Strategic Industry of Ukraine Oleksandr Kamyshin said at the end of December 2023 that the first products of the FrankenSAM project had been deployed by the country on the battlefield.
This is a program to pair parts of Western air defense systems with old Soviet-era complexes that Ukraine has in abundance.
Images on social networks previously also showed that Russia had mounted the RBU-6000 (Smerch-2) anti-submarine rocket system on a civilian truck to operate at a location near the village of Krynki on the east bank of the Dnieper River.