This article just popped up on me yesterday. I don’t really care about Ukraine VS Russia. I only care about the techniques used in an active near peer conflict. In my TacComms class we discuss using field phones to avoid common RF detection techniques and here it is in actual use.
As Ukraine prepares for its major offensive, it will only get harder to hide the troop build up from Russia’s forces. So Ukraine is having to work out ways to confound the enemy.
In a trench on the eastern front, a Ukrainian mortar team knows Russia’s not just trying to hunt them down with drones – it’s also using electronic warfare to try to locate their position.
The men of Ukraine’s 28th Brigade may have access to 21st Century technology – satellites, smart phones, and tablets – to help communicate and identify targets. But they’re also using a machine from the distant past.
An antique that wouldn’t look out of place in a trench during World War One: an old wind-up phone.
Vlad and his men pick up the field phone whenever they’re about to fire a mortar. Its dull ring makes a sound from a bygone era. For outgoing calls, they must wind up a handle. It’s like a scene from a black and white movie.
Vlad grabs the cables that reach out to other nearby trenches. He says it’s the safest means of communication, and that “it’s impossible to listen in”.
He says Russian electronic warfare systems can detect and intercept mobile phones and radios, but pointing to his ancient field telephone, Vlad says: “This technology is very old – but it works really well.”
Wyoming Survival 