David Ignatius writes:

Among Russia’s most costly mistakes when it invaded Ukraine was the expectation that it would dominate the electronic warfare part of the battle. Instead, Russia has stumbled and lost its way in the little-known realm of intercepting and jamming communications, an increasingly essential element of military success.

Russia’s unexpected failure on the electronic battlefield offers a case study in what has gone wrong for Moscow since the invasion began Feb. 24. The Russians overestimated their own capabilities, underestimated Ukraine’s — and didn’t reckon on the power of NATO military support for Kyiv. These failures left Russia’s forces — and even some of its top generals — vulnerable to attack.

“It was a combination of Russian arrogance and Ukrainian ingenuity,” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges argues, explaining Moscow’s reversals on this front. Hodges commanded U.S. Army troops in Europe from 2014 to 2018 and has emerged as one of the most knowledgeable commentators on the war.

Electronic warfare, or “EW,” is one of the exotic military arts that can be decisive on the modern battlefield but is almost unknown to the general public. The aim is to attack an adversary by manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum — through jamming, intercepting or altering communications, radar, GPS or other signals. This is the 21st-century version of what one of Britain’s chief scientists during World War Two described as the “wizard war.”

Russia’s vulnerability was vividly demonstrated this past weekend when it was reported that Maj. Gen. Andrei Simonov, among his country’s leading electronic war specialists, was killed in a Ukrainian artillery strike on a command post near Izyum. The fact that Ukraine could strike such a sensitive position illustrates its surprising mastery of precision targeting and attack. [Continue reading…]