To Deflect Russia's 'Miracle' Glide-Bombs, a Ukrainian Team Invented a New Jammer: One That Blasts Radio Noise In a Powerful Stream
Night Watch's Lima Focus jammer appears to be directional
In early 2024, Russian engineers modified the Russian air force’s KAB glide-bombs with more channels for their satellite radios. This made them harder to defeat by electronic means, as a jammer would have to interfere with each Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna channel to send the bomb off course. (Watch a Russian munition miss its target in the video above.)
Ukraine’s Night Watch electronic warfare team sprung into action. “When the enemy began using KAB guided bombs with Cometa‑8 eight-channel CRPA, we implemented eight-fold jamming coverage,” said Night Watch’s leader, whose nom de guerre is “Alchemist.”
It was the latest bout in an ongoing duel between Russian munitions-makers and Ukrainian electronic-warfare developers. The Russians develop a new bomb, missile or drone; the Ukrainians develop a new jammer to stop it; the Russians respond with another new munition; the Ukrainians hurry to field yet another jammer.
Neither side can rest, lest the enemy gain a lasting advantage. So on and so forth as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year. In the third year, the Russians very nearly gained an enduring firepower edge—with KABs that blew right through area jamming coming from just one direction.
Night Watch’s eight-channel Lima jammer, installed around power substations in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts as well as around the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, worked as intended. In the areas Lima covered, no KABs struck within 250 yards of a target, Alchemist claimed, citing Ukrainian government sources.
But the KABs, which normally weigh 1,100 or 2,200 pounds and range as far as 25 miles on pop-out wings, continued to pummel front-line positions. As many as 100 KABs struck every day.
The glide-bombs were a “miracle weapon” for the Russians, the Ukrainian Deep State analysis group noted. And Ukrainian forces had “practically no countermeasures.”
The problem, for the front-line troops, is that they can’t surround themselves at depth with jammers that broadcast in all directions, as the Russians control the terrain opposite them.
Jammers work best when they can create a wide zone of radio interference emitting from multiple directions. They work much less well when targeting a missile, bomb or drone from just one side as the munition barrels toward its target. The missile, bomb or drone might maintain its comms from the unjammed hemisphere long enough to zero in.
In other words, the omnidirectional jamming fields that protected cities and power stations deep behind Ukrainian lines last year weren’t as effective along those same lines. Night Watch was determined to change that.
“Upon the appearance of the Cometa‑8-equipped KABs, our team studied them thoroughly,” Alchemist said. “We reverse‑engineered the technical protocol—then designed a new device, Lima Focus, to jam from a single side.”
If omnidirectional jamming is a flood, single-side directional jamming is more akin to a stream of water shooting from a hose.
Single-direction jammer
Exactly how the Lima Focus directional jammer works is a closely held secret. But it’s a safe bet it features a very different antenna arrangement compared to an omnidirectional Lima jammer—and potentially more power, too. In any event, “field tests were excellent,” Alchemist said.
Night Watch, which has been gaining fame for its bootstrap approach to jammer-development and its fruitful relationship with a highly effective Chinese spy, pitched the single-side Lima Focus to the Ukrainian defense ministry’s electronic warfare department.
But full certification from the E.W. department would require three months of testing—and there was no time to wait as the KABs rained down. The general staff in Kyiv cut right through the red tape. It order Lima Focus into combat. “Same-day deployment,” Alchemist recalled.
Within a week of the Lima Focus’s deployment near Hremyach in Kharkiv Oblast, the Russian air force ceased KAB strikes in the area, Alchemist claimed. “We extended deployment to Vovchansk—with identical results.” Ukrainian intelligence overheard Russian pilots complaining over the radio that satellite navigation signals were failing 60 miles from the front.
The Zaporizhzhia regional council was the first to formally order Lima Focus units from Night Watch. “After deployment, KAB strikes on the city halted,” Alchemist said. The E.W. department formally certified the jammer, making it easier for government agencies to acquire it.
The Russians were watching, however—and learning. Recently undertaking their fourth major upgrade to the KAB navigation kits, they’ve begun adding four more radio channels. “To suppress that, 12‑fold emitter coverage is needed,” Alchemist explained. “Without it, the current E.W. fields lose effectiveness—causing rising hit frequency.”
Night Watch’s work won’t end … until the war ends.
Read more:
Desperate to Defeat Russian Missiles, Ukrainians Tracked Down Old Soviet Engineers at Their Factories
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.