During Covid 19, there appeared, outwardly at least, to have been little ongoing activity within the defence electronics sector, although one suspects that was far from the truth, because it was a sector of continuing technology growth, one in which some of that growth was to show its hand within a couple of years.

President Putin of Russia had his forces invade The Crimea in 2014, but he was obviously concerned with the continuing loss of ex-Warsaw Pact nations move towards NATO, which created the loss of a physical barrier between Russia and Western Europe.  Although Russia’s most recent attack on the Ukraine seems to have surprised many, in retrospect it should not have done so.  But it is this most recent conflict, and threats to Finland, Sweden, the Baltic States and Poland, that has exposed much of the radar technology developed over the last decade.

In September 2021 the Ukraine announced a new air defence radar designated 80K6S1, and called Phoenix. This system was integrated into Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile detachments. About the same time, we started to get a good view of the 90K6E, 'E' assumed export, a version of the system first seen in 2016. This is a multi-beam radar whose solid-state transceiver and complex antenna can detect and track high-flying, medium and low altitude targets simultaneously.

During 2021 Russia carried out Exercise Zapad, but surprisingly, nothing really new was seen. 9K33, SA-8 GEKO systems demonstrated their capability, whilst PRV-16-like height finders, 76N6 CLAM SHELL, 96L6 CHEESE BOARD and S-400 missile launchers were seen in the background. But there was an exception called REYPEYNIK (Burdock), This is a man-portable radar. According to some sources it was formally accepted into the Russian Army in 2022, which had 11 systems by January 2023. This radar is designed specifically to detect Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, but it is not the first, there is already a significant variety available of which the latest is a fully automatic anti-drone detection and weaon system. Having detected a hostile drone, it shoots to destroy. This is the Israeli RADA company’s SMARTSHOOTER system using its RPS-42 radar and a remotely controlled gun. Its radar, like many new radars employs solid-state and active electric scanning arrays, of which some radars are in the low probability of detection category with very low power outputs, making life increasingly difficult for last generation electronic warfare systems.