Ukraine's Tu-141 Long Range Attack Drone disabled by Russian Electronic Warfare System

Russia disabled a Ukrainian Strizh-type (Tu-141) drone in the Tula region using Pole-21 electronic warfare complex.

In its official statement, the Russian defense ministry said the Kyiv regime tried to stage an attack with the use of a Strizh-type UAV on March 26. Russia has deployed S-300 and Pantsir air defense systems, and Pole-21 electronic warfare systems in the Tula region.

“The Pole-21 EW system disabled the Ukrainian drone’s navigation system. Having lost direction, the UAV fell down near the city of Kireyevsk in the Tula region,” the ministry claims.

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Three people were wounded after the drone crashed. Three apartment blocks and four household structures were damaged.

The Pole-21 is intended to protect strategically important facilities against cruise missiles, drones and guided air bombs. It interferes with and suppresses any signals from navigation satellites within a range of more than 25 km.

The system jams the electromagnetic signals used for communication via the GPS satellite systems, Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou.

The system features a modular architecture and consists of ECM R-340RP devices along with jamming antennas and other control means of the system. Each Pole-21 station includes a container with onboard equipment and up to 3 antenna components as well as a remote control panel which controls over 100 antennas.

Russians use Pole-21 systems to suppress satellite communications. The complex interferes with and suppresses any signals from navigation satellites within a range of more than 25 km, which are used to guide precision weapons that are lost in space and cannot perform a combat mission.