John G. Greaves’ Post

In the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, drone warfare is evolving into a complex and rapidly changing battlefield. With a rise in civilian participation, individuals are now contributing to #intelligence gathering, often using everyday #technology. Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov stands out as a leader in this effort. Known for his expertise in #drone signal analysis, he has become a symbol of how innovation on the ground can shift the dynamics of modern warfare. Beskrestnov, a former IT specialist, has developed a network of radio enthusiasts and volunteers who use radio frequencies and social media to track and disrupt enemy drones. His grassroots approach to electronic warfare allows civilians to actively participate in Ukraine’s #defense efforts. Through his detailed social media posts, Beskrestnov educates a growing community of Ukrainians on jamming techniques and drone interception strategies, turning ordinary citizens into valuable contributors to the nation’s defense. In an era where warfare is increasingly digital, Beskrestnov’s work shows that intelligence is no longer limited to the military. His efforts exemplify how modern conflicts are transforming, with a blend of technological skill, public participation, and real-time information-sharing on social media playing a key role. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/duV6wPkT

The very definition of asymmetric warfare https://lnkd.in/dzWkBMnJ?

How Ukraine’s Tech Army is Taking the Fight to Russia "On the computer screen, you can see the thicket of Russian jammers and antiaircraft missiles that obstructs a simulated Ukrainian drone attack from 'Launch Site Alpha', near Kherson, to 'Target Site Oscar' in Russian-occupied Crimea. The menacing images I watched here were sketched using signals captured by sensors from land, sea, air and space. The Russian air-defense systems appeared as towering cylinders, miles wide and thousands of feet high. The electronic warfare jammers look like jagged fences of cross-hatched lines. The system also captured weather, wind speed and ground obstacles like tall buildings. Ukrainian drone operators can instantly map a safe route to the target using this system, which was developed for them by the U.S. software company Palantir. To demonstrate it for me, a Palantir engineer pressed a key: The simulated drone headed south, turned east in a wide semicircle to avoid one air-defense zone, carved a semicircle west around another, zigzagged a route through the jammers — and finally hit the target. This software-driven attack system is part of an astonishing wave of innovation driven by the Ukraine conflict. Fifteen months ago, I described the automated intelligence and targeting systems of 'the algorithm war', as technologists here described it. We’re now at version 2.0 — or maybe it’s 4.0. The race for advantage keeps accelerating. Russia, after a slow start, is proving nearly as adept at innovation as Ukraine. 'The nature of warfare has changed', explains Giorgi Tskhakaia, a defense adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. 'It’s a technology war. If you don’t know the path to evade air defense and EW (electronic warfare), you will lose most or all of your drones. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. We are learning, and the oppressor is learning, as well.' President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged that Ukraine will build 1 million drones this year to supplement its dwindling supply of weapons and artillery from the West. On any given day, each side has nearly 3,000 drones in the air, Tskhakaia says. The front line has become a digital shooting gallery. Ukrainian officials tell me that electronic jammers are everywhere at the front, blocking GPS and other signals. But some drones get through. Gruesome videos showing them pursuing desperate soldiers until they connect in a white burst of light look like military versions of a snuff film. I traveled here with a team from Palantir that’s advising the Ukrainian government on software tools for this constantly evolving battlespace. 'The question is how fast you can adapt', explained the Palantir engineer who’s coordinating the company’s operations here. Technology cycles evolve every few months, with each countermeasure producing an offsetting response." #ukraine #russia #technology

Great (if brief) piece on Kursk offensive. Hits multiple important themes - Maneuver x UAS x EW x competitive iteration x time. DoD planners have spoken for decades about an expectation of only having "bubbles" of air superiority. Those moments are crucial to restoring maneuver to the battlefield, and the hope (illusion?) of decisive battle. Need to be thinking about how contingent those moments of maneuver are on agile public - private (DoD - DIB) collaboration. Good work David Hambling #defenseinnovation Squadra Ventures https://lnkd.in/eNMgY8iT

#MissionMonday: Undersea Threat Identification | Uncrewed service vehicles are an excellent choice for undersea threat identification and neutralization. They can operate in contested environments, gather important intelligence, and solve an increasing number of strategic problems, all while keeping the warfighter out of harm’s way. Learn how our USVs help the US Navy mitigate and manage the digital fog of war: bit.ly/44U5Ity #uncrewedsystems #marineindustry

The Rogue 1™ loitering munition. Deploy. Recover. Reuse. Rogue 1 is a rapidly deployed, optionally-lethal VTOL small UAS that enables warfighters to conduct precision-strikes against moving or stationary targets. A first-of-its-kind mechanical interrupt allows Rogue 1 to be safely RECOVERED and REUSED when targets are disengaged or missions aborted. Tactical teams can quickly swap out warhead payloads -- forward fragmenting, explosively formed penetrator (EFP), or training -- based on need. Burst speeds greater than 70 mph/113 kph and range beyond 10 km. Learn more ... https://bit.ly/3L6a4o0 #AnyThreatAnywhere #Rogue1

It’s dangerously close to becoming a new tradition in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. The Russians develop a fancy new electronic system and deploy it to the front line—then promptly lose it to Ukrainian artillery, bombs or drones. It happened again this week, when the Ukrainian Shadow drone group hunted down, and blew up, a very new and very rare RB-109A Bylina electronic-warfare command-and-control system. Bylina is a set of sophisticated receivers, packed into five trucks, that detects and pinpoints enemy radars and radios and, thanks to a built-in artificial intelligence, automatically cues linked electronic jammers to target the radars and radios. A Bylina’s receivers can sense emitters from hundreds of miles away. All that is to say, Bylina isn’t a jammer. It’s an A.I.-powered command system that makes jammers more effective. Fifty-percent more effective, according to one assessment.

“I don’t think America, or the West in general, is prepared in any sort of way to fight a static war like we’re seeing over there in Ukraine.” One of the twelve key conditions driving the #OperationalEnvironment (OE) in the next ten years is its #increasedlethality. According to the TRADOC G-2‘s recently published The Operational Environment 2024-2034: Large-Scale Combat Operations: "LSCO will be increasingly lethal due to the intersection of sensor ubiquity, battlefield automation, precision strike, and massed fires." We've seen an increase in the production, employment, and success of Unmanned Aerial Systems (#UAS) on the battlefield in recent years. These systems were integral components of the Azeri victory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War – specifically the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Israeli Harop – and are proving vital in the on-going Russo-Ukrainian war. Indeed, during this latter conflict, the ever-evolving UAS/Counter-UAS (C-UAS) fight has led to #rapidadaptations on both sides as they seek to achieve #battlefieldadvantage. Yet any advantage achieved is fleeting -- as observed by Daniel Patt, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, "The peak efficiency of a new weapon system is only about two weeks before countermeasures emerge." In our latest episode of #ArmyMadSci 's The #ConvergencePodcast, we sat down with Wolfgang Hagarty to learn first-hand about the on-going war in Ukraine, its rapidly evolving UAS/C-UAS fight, and the overarching impacts of technological innovation on the changing character of warfare – check out the highlights from this interview at: https://lnkd.in/eRqZ46ZN #TRADOC #ArmyModernization #AWC

“I don’t think America, or the West in general, is prepared in any sort of way to fight a static war like we’re seeing over there in Ukraine.” One of the twelve key conditions driving the #OperationalEnvironment (OE) in the next ten years is its #increasedlethality. According to the TRADOC G-2‘s recently published The Operational Environment 2024-2034: Large-Scale Combat Operations: "LSCO will be increasingly lethal due to the intersection of sensor ubiquity, battlefield automation, precision strike, and massed fires." We've seen an increase in the production, employment, and success of Unmanned Aerial Systems (#UAS) on the battlefield in recent years. These systems were integral components of the Azeri victory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War – specifically the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Israeli Harop – and are proving vital in the on-going Russo-Ukrainian war. Indeed, during this latter conflict, the ever-evolving UAS/Counter-UAS (C-UAS) fight has led to #rapidadaptations on both sides as they seek to achieve #battlefieldadvantage. Yet any advantage achieved is fleeting -- as observed by Daniel Patt, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, "The peak efficiency of a new weapon system is only about two weeks before countermeasures emerge." In our latest episode of #ArmyMadSci 's The #ConvergencePodcast, we sat down with Wolfgang Hagarty to learn first-hand about the on-going war in Ukraine, its rapidly evolving UAS/C-UAS fight, and the overarching impacts of technological innovation on the changing character of warfare – check out the highlights from this interview at: https://lnkd.in/eRqZ46ZN #TRADOC #ArmyModernization #AWC

It’s dangerously close to becoming a new tradition in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. The Russians develop a fancy new electronic system and deploy it to the front line—then promptly lose it to Ukrainian artillery, bombs or drones. It happened again this week, when the Ukrainian Shadow drone group hunted down, and blew up, a very new and very rare RB-109A Bylina electronic-warfare command-and-control system. Bylina is a set of sophisticated receivers, packed into five trucks, that detects and pinpoints enemy radars and radios and, thanks to a built-in artificial intelligence, automatically cues linked electronic jammers to target the radars and radios. A Bylina’s receivers can sense emitters from hundreds of miles away. All that is to say, Bylina isn’t a jammer. It’s an A.I.-powered command system that makes jammers more effective. Fifty-percent more effective, according to one assessment.