Ukraine just knocked out a record number of special equipment

Moscow has lost a lot of military equipment since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Estimates vary on the numbers but the most reliable count puts the total figure at just over fourteen thousand pieces of hardware.  

A lot of news has been written about the number of tanks and armored fighting vehicles captured, damaged, or destroyed—and with good reason—these weapons are important tools Russia needs to achieve its goals. 

However, there is another important group of weapons that makes it possible for Moscow to wage war in Ukraine, and Russia lost a record amount of them in January 2024. They are listed by Ukraine's General Staff as “special equipment.”

Newsweek reported that the term special equipment may seem innocuous, but they are anything but since experts claimed the category included equipment like radars and the Kremlin’s all-too-important electronic warfare systems.  

The category of special equipment also encompasses less important items such as the engineering hardware needed to sustain Russian military operations. This includes things like mine clearance and maintenance vehicles needed to keep an army in the field.  

Photo Credit Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin

On January 1st, 2024, the total count of special equipment taken out by the Ukrainians after nearly two years of war stood at 1,277 units. By the end of the month, that number had risen to 1,452 units, an addition of 175 more units. 

January 2024 was the most destructive month for Russian special equipment since July 2023, when Ukraine eliminated 135 units of special equipment, according to figures from the country's General Staff that were quoted by Newsweek. 

The increased number of lost systems may indicate a shift in how Ukraine plans to fight the war with Russia now that the conflict has reached a relative stalemate, an issue that Commander-in-Chief Valrrii Zaluzhnyi pointed out in November 2023.

“Just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” Zaluzhnyi argued before admitting there would “most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough” because of the reality of the conflict.

However, Zaluzhnyi also offered a solution in an essay shared with The Economist that noted that innovations in drone technology, anti-artillery capabilities, electronic warfare, and demining equipment could make a big difference for Kyiv. 

“It is important to understand that this war cannot be won with the weapons of the past generation and outdated methods,” Zaluzhnyi explained. “They will inevitably lead to delay and, as a consequence, defeat.”

The key takeaway from Zaluzhnyi's interview was that drones make it difficult to fight an offensive since the other side can see your forces advancing, which is why targeting the other side’s electronic warfare and radar equipment is a high priority.

Understanding the importance of radar is straightforward. But if you don’t know what electronic warfare is, then an explanation is in order: it is the use of the electromagnetic spectrum to protect military assets while disrupting the enemies according to Lockheed Martin. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By U.S. Space Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman

In late November 2023, CNN reported Ukraine was making a new push to defeat these systems. One soldier explained how Russia used to use its capabilities to disrupt radios at the start of the war, but now those systems were used to suppress weapons. 

Photo Credit Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin

“At the beginning of the conflict, they used electronic warfare to interfere with our communication, our walkie-talkies, radiocommunications, telephones, drones… But when we started to receive foreign equipment, they started to use these systems to suppress our weapons,” the soldier said. 

The soldier went on to explain that because weapons like the US-supplied Himars and Excalibur 155 artillery shells were guided by satellite, they were actively being disrupted by Russia, a problem Zaluzhnyi also pointed out in his essay. 

Newsweek reported that destroying the “Kremlin's electronic warfare systems, radars, logistics and maintenance vehicles will help to undermine Moscow's front-line forces that are now working to advance in Ukraine's Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.”