Ukraine invasion has revealed a previously unknown Russian weapon system: report

Russia is using a never-before seen electronic jamming device to help its missiles evade Ukraine's sophisticated air-defense systems.

The New York Times reports that American intelligence officials have discovered that the barrage of ballistic missiles Russia has fired into Ukraine contain a surprise: decoys that trick air-defense radars and fool heat-seeking missiles.

An American intelligence official told The Times that the devices are each about a foot long, shaped like a dart and white with an orange tail. They are deployed by the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles that Russia is firing from mobile launchers across the border, the official said, when the missile senses that it has been targeted by air defense systems.

Each decoy is packed with electronics and produces radio signals to jam or spoof enemy radars attempting to locate the Iskander-M. They also contain a heat source to attract incoming missiles. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about intelligence matters, described the devices on the condition of anonymity.

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Photographs of the dart-shaped munitions began circulating on social media two weeks ago. Munitions experts and open-source intelligence analysts originally mistook them for bomblets from cluster weapons based on their size and shape.

The devices are similar to Cold War decoys called “penetration aids,” the intelligence official said, that have accompanied nuclear warheads since the 1970s and were designed to evade antimissile systems and allow individual warheads to reach their targets. The incorporation of the devices into weapons like the Iskander-M that have conventional warheads previously has not been documented in military arsenals.

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