Anti-drone technology is considered a vital defensive tool on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, Russian anti-drone jammers have repeatedly proven ineffective.https://www.silencejammer.com/mobile-jammer-cell-phone-blocker Not only did these devices fail to effectively curb Ukrainian drone attacks, but they also gave Russian frontline soldiers a "false sense of security" due to major design flaws, which ultimately led to their casualties.
Radio jammers: the gap between theory and reality
The design concept of radio signal jammers is to disrupt the normal operation of drones or even crash them by emitting radio noise to cut off the signal connection between drones and their operators. https://www.silencejammer.com/gps-jammer-blocker-car-signal This theory seems simple, but it is challenging to implement effectively in complex battlefield environments. In actual combat, the attack paths and patterns of drones are often unpredictable, and the Russian-designed jammers have failed to adapt to these changes. https://www.silencejammer.com/wifi-jammer-bluetooth-blocker-device
An angry Russian blogger exposed the problems of a $2,400 multi-frequency radio jammer on social media. https://www.silencejammer.com/drone-jammer-anti-uav-blocker The design errors of the device made it almost impossible to fight against drones. GSM jammerThe blogger emphasized that these jammers gave frontline soldiers an unrealistic sense of security, causing them to die in combat. https://www.silencejammer.com/gsm-jammer-portable-jamming What's more, the blogger pointed out that this is not the first time that similar jammers have failed on the Ukrainian battlefield. The Russian jammers stolen by Ukrainian troops a few months ago were also proven to be almost useless.
The blogger conducted a detailed analysis of the design of this radio jammer and pointed out several significant flaws. The first is that the direction of the antenna is not designed properly. An ideal droneGSM jammer should be able to broadcast radio signals in multiple directions, covering a large area, thereby interfering with drones in multiple directions and altitudes. However, most of the antennas of this jammer are fixed upward, which means that it can only cover the situation where the drone flies directly above.
Most of Ukraine's FPV (first-person perspective) drones attack from low altitude or from the side, and the upward antenna cannot cope with this flight path at all. As a result, the effective range of the jammer is extremely limited, and its role on the battlefield is greatly reduced. Worse, the fixed design of the antenna means that the device can only deal with drones in a small area directly above the jammer, which is almost impossible on a flexible and changeable battlefield.
In addition, the blogger also pointed out the heat dissipation problem of the device. Radio jammers generate a lot of heat when they are working, so an efficient cooling system is needed to ensure the continuous operation of the equipment. However, this jammer is only equipped with a simple fan, and there are no vents on the device casing. This means that the fan cannot exhaust the heat, and the device quickly overheats in a short period of time, and the internal electronic components are damaged. The blogger described this phenomenon as the "blast furnace effect", where the device casing quickly becomes overheated and the operator cannot even touch it.