To Beat Missiles, Ukraine Tracked Old Soviet Engineers

Old-timers taught how to jam cruise missiles

Night Watch, the Ukrainian electronic warfare team that, in 2023, recruited a Chinese spy to steal critical technology associated with Russia’s Shahed explosive drones, began as a disorganized gaggle of volunteers in the chaotic early hours of Russia’s wider invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It quickly gelled as a team—and began searching Ukraine’s old Soviet-era weapons factories for old-timers with the know-how to defeat Russia’s missiles and drones. This combination—eager young volunteers and crusty old veterans—is the human resources recipe for Night Watch’s best missile and drone jammers.

“The war for me and my team began in February 2022,” Night Watch’s leader, who goes by the nom de guerre “Alchemist,” told Trench Art. “Ordinary civilians, we joined the Territorial Defense [Forces] to protect the homeland. Having no military education, we took on soldiering duties.”

But their real expertise was organizational. “Each of us brought significant experience from civilian work or business, which proved advantageous,” Alchemist said. “As territorial defense fighters, we were less familiar with obtaining weapons or filing requisitions—but we excelled at sourcing or even manufacturing them using volunteer funds or personal resources.”

Night Watch’s original 10 members quickly identified a problem they could solve. “From the war’s outset, the enemy widely deployed cruise missiles against Ukraine. We saw these as the primary threat to our logistics [and] cities in the war’s early months. That is when we began searching for countermeasures.” (See video of cruise missile impacts, above.)

Old-timers

Scouring the available literature, Night Watch concluded Russia’s cruise missiles likely featured radar guidance in their terminal phase. If that was the problem, the solution was obvious. “Our first defense systems were based on manufacturing radar reflectors.” That and “fortifying critical infrastructure with sandbag barriers.”

Practical experience showed them the limits of their theoretical research. “When two Russian cruise missiles were launched at a strategic target—with only one being deflected despite a large number of reflectors—we understood we had missed something,” Alchemist recalled. “We realized they were likely using satellite navigation in guidance.”

Night Watch’s volunteers lacked any experience with satellite navigation. So they went looking for people who did possess that experience. “In Ukraine remained many Soviet-era defense industry factories,” Alchemist said. “We located specialists who had previously developed guidance systems for Russian missiles. It turned out they had considered technologies to jam these systems, but deemed production unfeasible at the time.”

Undeterred, Night Watch pooled its funds. The team’s goal: to develop a radio noisemaker—which it called “Lima”—that could overwhelm the satellite radio receivers on Russian munitions. “We purchased their research, and by December 2022, the first version of the Lima system was deployed.”

Lima doesn’t just jam with noise, however. It “also launched cyberattacks on navigation receivers, causing them to perform meaningless calculations and render them inoperative—even after the missile left the jamming zone.”

Night Watch took the Lima design to the Ukrainian general staff in Kyiv. “We offered to reprogram existing Ukrainian [electronic warfare] equipment accordingly. But legal and certification issues made this impossible.” There was nothing preventing Night Watch from building Lima from scratch, however.

Officials gave the team their blessing. “We were tasked with producing our own device and undergoing state testing.”

Fighting against the odds to push the invading Russian army back toward Ukraine’s borders, the Ukrainian military was … pre-occupied. “Since the military couldn’t handle production, our friends stepped in. They were able to rapidly organize production, draft technical documentation and prepare for official testing.”

Tapping its own funds, Night Watch built the first five jammers. The initial deployments, starting in February 2023, took place around Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.

On March 9, 2023, Lima endured its first trial by fire. “Nine cruise missiles entered our jamming zone—and none hit their target. That same day, a Granat reconnaissance drone was also downed,” Alchemist said.

Two months later on May 9, two more cruise missiles targeting the area protected by Lima crashed into the forest, miles from the apparent target. (See video of a jammed cruise missile, above.)

The jammer worked. But every measure has a countermeasure, and every countermeasure has a countercountermeasure. To keep Lima working, Night Watch had to constantly improve it. A few months later, that required the team to hire a Chinese spy.

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