Trent Telenko Profile picture
Feb 15 18 tweets 9 min read
The subject of this thread is "Commercial Open Source Military Radar Detection in Semi Real Time" courtesy of Bellingcat.

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bellingcat.com/resources/2022…
This is text from the beginning of the previous link:

The Radar Interference Tracker (RIT) is a new tool created by Ollie Ballinger that allows anyone to search for and potentially locate active military radar systems anywhere on earth.

Image- Sentinel-1 interference pattern
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It turns out that the Sentinal-1 commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signal frequency is interfered with by C-band radars like those used by Patriot, S-300P FLAP LID & successors, 5N62 SQUARE PAIR, in fact a good number of Russian acquisition and engagement radars.
3/ ImageImageImage
Two Sentinal-1 SAR-sat passes and you get an interference pattern "X" that marks the spot of a C-band emitter.

4/ ImageImage
Also via Bellingcat:

Other military radars that operate on the same C-band frequency include naval radars such as the Japanese FCS-3, the Chinese Type-381 and the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system. All should be detectable when switched on and in view of Sentinel-1.
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The ability of non-state actors UAV's to play SEAD games by going after Patriot C-band emitters with this tool is also a threat not to be underestimated.
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There are two responses to this radar interference tool tracking, one operational and one technological.

The operational one needs WW2 style close range anti-drone defense of primary ADA like the 50 cal Maxon turret was shielding 40mm & 90 mm HAA from strafing fighters.

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Smart and/or drone combat experienced SAM operators have already are already doing this. Facebook posts show Ukrainians attaching DShKM and ZU-23-2 sections to S-300 and Buk M1 batteries.

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The other response is technological.

Putting on my 'old crow' cap, C-band ADA radars need to shift to using lower power wideband frequency hopping to push the peak power below the interference threshold of the satellites.

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The problem with that tech solution is higher radiated power is absolutely required for C-band radar anti-ballistic missile role.

This is why the operational combined arms solution will be used more often, but the tech solution still has to happen.

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The issue of radar interference allowing your opponents geolocate your emitters is as old as radar.

The Allies chose UK Mark III Identification Friend or Foe over the USN's Mark IV because the latter interfered with German radars. It was true when the decision was made.

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Unfortunately, this non-interference did not stay so for long.

When the RAF Bomber Command used its Mandrel jammers.

The Germans moved their Freya radar to higher frequencies that the Mark III IFF responded too.
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Per "British Intelligence in the Second World War" Volume 3, Part 1, the Luftwaffe exploited this radar interference such that it may have been the primary reason Bomber Command lost the Battle of Berlin during the Winter/spring of 1943-1944.

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R.V. Jones in MOST SECRET WAR put it this way (see text photo captures):

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Further on Jones wrote:

"...the Germans’ own (Enigma) reports 9 out of the 41 aircraft lost on 2nd/3rd December against Berlin had been shot down because of their use of I.F.F., 4 out of 24 lost on Leipzig on the following night and 6 out of 26 on Berlin on 16/17th December—
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and these may have been due to one plotting station alone."

Similar tracking of US planes and ships was happening during the Kamikaze campaign in the Pacific because Japanese aerial radars also addressed the Mark III IFF.

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Radar interference, as a tool to track enemy radars, is as old as radars.

But it's history lessons are seldom, if ever, taught. This is why 'Old Crows' say:

"It's what you think you know.
That isn't so.
Which kills you every time."

17/End Image
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More from @TrentTelenko

Feb 28
People do not understand the implications of 55 "NATO surplus" Mig-29's arriving in Ukraine immediately mean.

The UAF cannot assimilate & use those Mig-29's that quickly without pilots and ground crew to go with them.

Unless this is NATO's version of Chennault's Flying Tigers.
Pres. Zelensky already has a program for immediately inducting any foreign soldier who wishes to fight for Ukraine.

You might have serving Polish, Slovakian and Bulgarian MiG drivers in the mix along with their ground crew.

2/
These MIG-29's have link 16 to listen to NATO E-3D.

Any Russian or Belarus aircraft over 50 meters altitude w/in 300 km of NATO borders is now a target.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Feb 25
James Dunnican's Strategypage.com site had a very interesting analysis column that explains what Russian VDV descents on Ukrainian air bases ran into and the patterns of combat to date with Putin's five invasion axis's.

Thread

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Excerpts from the column:

"Russian airborne forces managed to take an airport ten kilometers outside Kyiv. Efforts to use that airport to bring in additional troops were disrupted by the Ukrainian use...

strategypage.com/qnd/russia/art…

2/
...of Stinger portable anti-aircraft missiles as well as rifle and machine-gun fire at low flying aircraft. The airport was quickly attacked by a Ukrainian army rapid reaction force organized and trained for retaking key locations seized by Russian airborne forces.

3/
Read 15 tweets
Feb 25
The subject of this thread is the Russian VDV airhead at the Hostomel Airport just North of Kyiv and a rumor associated with same.

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Rumor with lots of 🧂🧂:

There is a rumor that the Ukrainians used a (or several?) Tochka-U SRBM to break VDV resistance at the airport near Kiev.

2/
There are horrid implications for Western Military power projection in this.

If true, the 82nd Airborne Division & 18th Corps are obsolete concept tactical unit far overdue to get its walking papers.

You can't paradrop anti-ballistic missile systems with a ready brigade.
3/
Read 10 tweets
Feb 18
@thinkdefence
@vcdgf555
@ELINTNews
@sentdefender
@Osinttechnical

The Russian military has turned the volume on their OTH-B radar to "11" -- AKA wartime frequency & power -- in an attempt to track stealth aircraft & drones.
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This is a useful article in understanding Russian & Chinese OTH-B Radar deployments & capabilities.

idstch.com/geopolitics/ov…
This video from the previous article link is also useful regards Chinese OTH_B radar capabilities.

Read 4 tweets
Feb 6
@spawnofKahn @donachaidh @John_Hudson @washingtonpost Before it was suppressed by Putin, the Russian "Gruz-200" group reported 12,100 confirmed Russian Army KIA/MIA in the Donbas in 2014-2015.

Ukraine MoD reported another 762 to 3438 irregulars KIA/MIA.

This was in artillery-heavy “medium intensity” war where WIA>KIA by 10 to 1 Image
@spawnofKahn @donachaidh @John_Hudson @washingtonpost What stopped Putin wasn't total losses. It was the losses in the Regime Security units.

The total manpower for the Russian VDV plus naval infantry, Tanman Guards, the MVD/FSB SWAT units, FSB/GRU Spetznaz, and Southern VO Motorized forces is roughly 50,000 over all.
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@spawnofKahn @donachaidh @John_Hudson @washingtonpost The Regime Security units were used as about 25% "stiffeners" for the a-- & trash on that Phillip Karber slide.

Doing the sums:

(12,862 KIA/MIA + 25,724 WIA) * 25% = 9,647 casualties, AKA 1/5th of the standing Russian REGIME SECURITY FORCES in Feb 2014.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Feb 4
@danieljleahy & @ww2tv had a crackerjack stream on Australian Stuart tanks at Sanananda New Guinea this morning. Someone in the chat asked how they go there.

This thread will address that question.
1/
So, lets talk about the Australian Operation Lilliput that ran freighter convoys from Milne Bay to Oro bay in 1942.

The route that was used in Dec 1942 was pioneered by the US Army Small Ship Service (USASS).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation…
John Sheridan Fahnestock and Adam Bruce Fahnestock, friends with Pres. Roosevelt, originated the idea of a unit of small sailing ships to deliver supplies to Bataan, called “Mission X.”

It was a measure of the desperation of the time that MacArthur bit
2/
transportation.army.mil/history/docume…
Read 10 tweets

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