Editor’s Note: For years the US administration has turned a blind eye to problems of jamming and spoofing of all kinds. The example below of millions of dollars wasted in foreign aid trying to counter Russia in the Ukraine is a relatively benign example compared to the potential problems that could be caused within the US.
Exclusive: U.S.-supplied drones disappoint Ukraine at the front lines
Millions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-supplied drones that Kiev had hoped would help in its war against Russian-backed separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say.
The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine’s military with deep knowledge of the country’s drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them.
“From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict),” Chazin, an advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, told Reuters.
But they appear to have fallen short in a battle against the separatists, who benefit from far more sophisticated military technology than insurgencies the West has contended with in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.
