How Ukraine disabled a major Russian radar system

In June 2024, the Ukrainian Special Operations Force shared a video showing a drone strike on a long-range radar system utilized by Russian forces against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Special Operation Forces (SSO) published a video of what it claimed was the successful targeting and elimination of Russian Kasta-2E2 radar systems across the group’s social media pages on June 3rd. this is a system United24 reported costs roughly $60 million dollars. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0

While the location of the strike was not provided, the video showed the Kasta-2E2 being hit by a drone. Unfortunately, it is unclear from the video whether or not the Ukrainian drone strike did destroy the system, thought it is clear from the footage that the radar vehicle was heavily damaged. 

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"Our operators inflicted fire damage on the Russian radar,” wrote the Special Operations Force on its Facebook page according to Newsweek, “one of the latest developments that entered service with the SSO…Warning to Russians from the SSO: more to come!"

Photo Credit: Facebook @usofcom

The SSO announcement came just days after a Ukrainian strike on an advanced radar system in Crimea by the Security Service of Ukraine that included four drones. The Kyiv Post revealed the details of that costly drone attack. 

Sources explained to the Ukrainian News outlet that Russia lost “one long-range radar detection system Nebo-SVU which about $100 million.” The system was located in the Armyansk and used to monitor more than 380 kilometers or 236 miles of the frontline. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0

“The Russians now have one less modernized Nebo-U complex,” noted the Kyiv Post’s sources. However, this wasn't the first Nebo radar system that Russian forces had lost to Ukrainian attacks around that time, nor throughout the course of the war.

On April 16th, Ukrainian news media reported that the Ukrainian Security Service struck and destroyed a Russian Nebo-U long-range radar system inside Russia according to a source from the security service. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0

The radar system was operating from Bryansk Oblast, which is inside of Russia, and Moscow used the radar system to monitor Ukrainian airspace upwards of 434 miles or roughly 700 kilometers past its border, Business Insider reported. 

“The radar is designed to detect, locate, and track various types of aerial targets, from planes to cruise and guided missiles, including small-size supersonic, ballistic, and low-observable targets,” explained Army Recognition. 

“The radar can determine the state affiliation of aerial targets and locate hostile jamming stations. It can operate automatically, independently, and within the unit control system,” Army Recognition added. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin,  CC BY-SA 4.0

Seven kamikaze drones were used in the attack according to a source who spoke with The Kyiv Independent, who added that the radar complex was “no longer operational” following the Ukrainian strike. 

"Thanks to the destruction of this radar, the enemy has fewer opportunities to detect air targets along Ukraine's northern border," the unnamed source told the Ukrainian news outlet before explaining how the strike would help the war. 

Russian "radar blindness" will assist as Ukrainian forces conduct reconnaissance, launch drones, and use their air assets in the region the Russian radar system was monitoring “more efficiently” the source also explained. 

The destroyed Russian Nebo-U radar system likely helped the Russian Air Force drop ariel-guided bombs and the Kyiv Independent reported that the upgraded complex has a price tag of roughly $100 million dollars. 

However, Business Insider noted the cost of the radar system destroyed may not be as clear as it seems since Russian state media reported that the complex was newer and was rolled out to the Russian Armed Forces eight years prior. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0

“Ukraine said this was the second Nebo-U it had destroyed, with the first taken out in Belgorod, a Russian region near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv,” Business Insiders’ Matthew Loh reported.

“Multiple variations of the Nebo, which translates to ‘sky,’ are used by Russian air and ground forces,” Loh continued, adding that more modern systems include the Nebo-U and Nebo-M.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Boevaya Mashina, Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Again, this wasn’t the first Nebo radar system Ukraine has claimed it destroyed since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Newsweek reported that the Ukrainians previously claimed they destroyed a Nebo radar system in September 2023 and another in November 2023. 

In February 2024, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency also said that it destroyed a key Russian radar system that was stationed close to the Russian border. However, that system was another Kasta-2E2 radar, the same type of system the SSO claimed that it destroyed on June 3rd. 

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The Kasta-2E2 destroyed by Ukraine in February was also taken out with a Polish-made Warmate 3.0 loitering munition drone according to the Ukrainian news website Militaryni, which shows the growing competency and danger that inexpensive Ukrainian drones pose to Russian equipment on the battlefield. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Michał Derela - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

“The war in Ukraine has cast a spotlight on the combat deployment of first-person unmanned drones, which are inexpensive and often equipped with explosives that can be dropped on or flown into targets with precision,” wrote Business Insdier's Mattehw Loh.