Did Russian “Krasukha” EW Systems Bring Down American MQ-9 Reaper drone Over Poland?

An American MQ-9 Reaper drone, which made an emergency landing in northwestern Poland on March 18, probably had its electronic links suppressed by Russian "Krasukha-2O" and "Krasukha-4" electronic warfare systems.

The incident occurred on the night of March 18, according to a statement released by the General Command of Poland's Armed Forces: "After 23:00 (02:00 Moscow time), an emergency landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle of the U.S. Armed Forces occurred in the vicinity of Mirosławiec, while flying in Polish airspace."

An air base at Mirosławiec, where the drone landed, is around 250 km from Russia's Kaliningrad region, which Russian sources say is within reach of the electronic suppression capabilities of the "Krasukha" EW systems.

The authoritative "Russian Weapons" Telegram channel reported on the same day that an MQ-9 Reaper was reconnoitering deployment areas of the Iskander-M surface-to-surface missile system, as well as artillery and armored vehicles of the Russian Armed Forces near Kaliningrad, Gusev, and Chernyakhovsk.

To do this, the MQ-9A operators used the MX-20HD turret optical-electronic complex, whose medium- and long-wave IR channels were supposed to ensure detection of Russian heat-contrast equipment and personnel in the IR range, as well as AN/APY AFAR radar -8 in synthetic aperture and detection of moving equipment mode.

As a result, the MQ-9A's APY-8 radar operating in the X-band, the SATCOM satellite data exchange channel antenna, and the C-band communication and data exchange antenna were exposed to the narrow interference beam of the C/X-band of the Krasukha-4 complex.

In addition, the Krasukha-2O's L/S-band electronic warfare system suppressed GPS navigation modules, as well as the Iridium-Data Link antenna distributed over the airframe. The MQ-9A drone was then forced to return to its base using the INS, autopilot, and backup command and telemetry channels.