UKRAINIAN ELECTRONIC WARFARE REPORTEDLY DIVERTED TWO BALLISTIC MISSILES INTO THE DNIPRO
Earlier this year, two Russian ballistic missiles were traveling at hypersonic speed toward a key government facility in Kyiv when they suddenly changed course and crashed into the Dnipro River, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ukraine’s elite Night Watch electronic-warfare unit says it stopped them using Lima—a powerful system capable of broadcasting disruptive signals across approximately 120 miles.
Lima did not physically strike the missiles. It reportedly filled the air with false navigation signals, confusing their guidance systems and pulling them away from the intended target. Around the same time, navigation applications on phones across Kyiv began showing residents thousands of miles away in Peru—the unmistakable side effect of widespread location spoofing.
Several Ukrainian and Western air-defense specialists told the Journal that a system like Lima is technically capable of disrupting ballistic-missile attacks. Night Watch also claims it previously caused a Russian Kinzhal missile to change direction and break apart under the pressure of its own extreme speed.
Electronic warfare cannot replace Patriot systems, and it does not stop every missile. But if Night Watch’s account is accurate, Ukraine has demonstrated something potentially transformative: ballistic weapons costing millions of dollars can sometimes be defeated by invisible signals at a fraction of the cost.
While Russia attempts to overwhelm Ukraine through ballistic terror, Ukrainian engineers are finding new ways to make even its fastest missiles lose their way.j