Fake Air-Defenses Are Bolstering Ukraine’s Real Air-Defenses

The sky over Ukraine is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aircrews. Ukrainian and Russian air-defenses blanket the entire country.

But there are thin patches in these defenses. Holes the Ukrainians partially have filled with fake radars from the United States. “Threat emitters,” they’re called.

Aviation Week first reported the supply of threat emitters by the United States to Ukraine.

A threat emitter—which militaries normally use for training aircrews—broadcasts a signal similar to an air-defense radar without possessing the same signal-processing systems and without cueing an actual missile or gun. It’s just frightening noise.

But that noise is useful to a clever planner. A threat emitter could create the impression that local defenses are more powerful than they actually are, potentially deterring air raids. Emitters also could draw enemy fire—and even lure attacking forces into traps.

It’s unclear exactly which threats the emitters in question replicate. But it’s possible to guess. Back in 2018, Ukrainian firm Iskra sold to the U.S. Army a 36D6M1-1 air-defense radar.

The 36D6M1-1, also known by its codename “Tin Shield,” is associated with the S-300 SAM system. That the Americans have a Tin Shield radar implies they might also have produced Tin Shield threat emitters.

The S-300 is capable of engaging targets as far as 125 miles away, depending on the model. Hundreds of S-300 launchers comprise Ukraine’s main long-range air-defense. It’s not for no reason the Kremlin has been targeting Ukrainian S-300s with Lancet drones and other defense-suppression weapons.

In all, the Ukrainians have lost 36 S-300 launchers that outside analysts can confirm, but have received as replacements just one battery of several launchers, from Slovakia.

Ukraine could use more S-300s. And until it finds another source for secondhand batteries—or acquires enough Western-made SAM batteries as substitutes—a threat emitter costing perhaps $30,000 is an easy way to appear to fill gaps in the country’s air-defenses.

Deception is a time-honored tradition in the practice of air-defense. Decoy guns once played the same role that threat-emitters do today. But the Ukrainians and Russians haven’t totally abandoned the art of the physical decoy.

Indeed, fake air-defense systems—inflatable, wooden or inoperable versions of operational systems—have appeared on both sides in the war. The Ukrainians in particular are adept at drawing Russian missiles away from real air-defenses and toward fake ones. Threat-emitters add electronic realism to the deception.