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Ukrainian Drone Strike Targets Rare Russian “Tirada-2” Electronic Warfare System, Video
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![Vlad Litnarovych]( "Vlad Litnarovych")
Ukrainian drone operators have successfully struck and destroyed a rare Russian electronic warfare (EW) system, the Tirada-2, the Shadow 59 unit of Ukraine’s separate motorized infantry brigade reported, sharing footage of the precision drone strike on the target on April 4.
Developed by Russia’s Central Scientific Research Institute under the Ministry of Defense, the Tirada-2 was first procured under a 2018 defense contract. Just a year later, in 2019, it was spotted deployed in the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region.
Russia previously claimed the system was capable of jamming satellite communications.
“The occupiers tried to conceal their EW system by hiding it among trees,” the Shadow 59 unit said.
“But with sparse foliage, the attempt failed—and Ukrainian aerial surveillance quickly detected the complex and relayed the coordinates to the drone operators.”
Footage from the strike shows the system poorly camouflaged in a treeline, with the Ukrainian drone delivering a direct hit.
The Tirada-2 system had earlier drawn the attention of international observers. On March 19, 2019, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) noted that one of its drones had spotted two electronic warfare systems, including the Tirada-2, near the settlement of Yuzhna Lomuvatka in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. The OSCE later published aerial images of the system.
Ukrainian open-source intelligence group InformNapalm previously assessed that Russia may have been using the Tirada-2 to jam the communication link between US RQ-4B Global Hawk reconnaissance drones and their satellites.
At the time, the American high-altitude UAVs, equipped with advanced HISAR (Hughes Integrated Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems, were conducting regular surveillance flights near the frontline in the Donbas.
Earlier, Ukrainian forces utilized American-made Switchblade 600 attack drones to destroy Russian Buk and Tor air defense systems deep behind enemy lines in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region.
