There is an open season on Russian radar stations as Ukraine deploys anti-radiation missiles.
Russian troops will think twice before using their radars if they see the presence of the high-speed anti-radiation missiles.
The Russian air-defense radars needed to defend against Ukrainian helicopters and jets and for the counter-battery radars used to locate Ukrainian artillery will be difficult to defend.
There were reports of missiles hitting a Russian anti-aircraft missile site in Ukranian in August. The Pentagon confirmed that they had supplied the Ukrainians.
Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters on August 8 that a number of anti-radiation missiles that can be fired off of Ukrainian aircraft that can have effects on Russia's radars.
It's not a new weapon. The missile has a top speed of Mach 2 and a range of 30 miles.
In Libya, Iraq, and Yugoslavia, the US has used the AGM-88 in suppression missions. Fifteen countries use the missile.
The AGM-88 is a descendant of the AGM-45Shrike which was used in the Vietnam War.
The AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile was the basis of the Shrike and it only had a short range. The missile's radar seeker was confused by the transmitters switched on and off.
These flaws were fixed by the HARM. Even if the radar is shut down, the radar's location is not lost. The 30-mile range makes it possible to launch it beyond the range of many anti-aircraft weapons.
The Stand-in Attack Weapon, which is designed to attack a broader set of targets, will be deployed by the US Navy.
Russia has an anti-radiation missile called the Kh-31P that it has sold to China.
Anti-radiation missiles can be useful. They can clear a path for friendly aircraft when launched before an airstrike.
They can be fooled by decoys. The fake transmitters are placed at a distance from the real radar. The impact point is called theARM pit.
Anti-radar missiles are just one of many tools that can be used in electronic warfare.
Anti-radiation missiles are used for psychological reasons. HARM will not completely shut down Russian radars, but it will make their operators more cautious.
Anti-radiation missiles won't have a big impact in Ukraine.
Ukrainians don't have enough modern planes and Russian pilots aren't very effective in the conflict. Shutting down Russian air-defense radars won't help the Ukrainians.
Ukrainian forces will be able to hit the Russian counter-battery radars that track shells and rockets in flight, calculate their trajectory, and find the howitzers and rocket launchers that fired them with the help of HARMs.
Suppressing the Russian counter-battery systems will help protect the Ukrainians from Russian bombardment.
His work has been published in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy Magazine and other publications. He has a masters degree in political science. You can follow him on social networking sites.
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