Ukraine has employed advanced electronic warfare (EW) systems to intercept and manipulate the satellite coordinates of Russian Shahed strike drones, redirecting them into Russian and Belarusian territory.
This was reported by Le Monde on November 26.
“This is the result of our ‘spoofing’—intercepting satellite coordinates,” a source close to Ukrainian military intelligence explained.
On November 26, Russia launched a massive drone assault, deploying 188 Shahed drones along with four Iskander-M ballistic missiles. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, this marked the largest drone attack in the 1,000 days since the war began. The 192 air targets originated from Russia's Voronezh, Oryol, Kursk, and Krasnodar regions.
Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 76 drones using fighter jets, helicopters, mobile air defense batteries, and surface-to-air missiles, supported by electronic jamming systems. Meanwhile, 95 drones were redirected using spoofing techniques, which manipulated their satellite navigation systems.
Between November 24 and 26, Ukraine also redirected a record-breaking 43 Shahed drones into Belarusian territory.
Ukraine has been intensively developing electronic warfare capabilities to counter drone threats, conserving its limited air defense resources. These EW systems disable drones by altering their course, causing them to crash or run out of fuel, as noted by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
