DSEI 2019 – overview

Nearly two weeks ago I attended the Defence & Security Equipment International 2019 (DSEI19) at the Excel exhibition centre, London.

The intention of this blog is to provide a brief look at what I saw on the day I attended.

Generally, I was more impressed with the smaller companies that I met rather than the larger ones. The larger ones, once they’d read my name badge and saw that I was “Media”, gave me the feeling that they couldn’t wait to get rid of me as I wasn’t there to make a multi-million pound purchase from them. The smaller, or less well known, were far more attentive and provided me with a good amount of information on their products, target audience and hopes for the future.

Whilst this may turn you off from reading the remainder of the blog, I think I’ll start with the things I was a little disappointed with.

One of the companies I was extremely interested in visiting was Barrett Communications. As I’m currently writing an article for Janes on a system very much like one of their products I emailed the UK office in advance to tell them that I was coming and what I was interested in. They did reply and were keen to see I was attending, even sending me a heads up on one their new products that was yet to be revealed. I was, then, very quick to go and see them once the show started.

Barrett PRC-4090 HF Tactical Manpack. 250 kHz to 30 MHz Rx/Tx (from 1.6 MHz for Tx) – CW, USB/LSB/ISB modes – 2G/3G ALE – 10W/30W or 150W PEP depending on 12v/24v power – 5 0r 25 freq hops per second – max weight 5kg

However, once on the stand, things were very different. As I said above, the media name badge meant I wasn’t a buyer. And despite trying to show keenness on their equipment, which I’d swatted up on before attending, I got the feeling the sales chap just wanted me to leave. On a couple of occasions I was brushed aside so that he could chat or shake hands with a mate rather than carry on showing me some of their products – which are actually very good. Nice gear, not always so good at media relations.

Barrett 4050 HF SDR’s in various guises, with the capability to control via tablets such as iPads.

Unfortunately, the same can almost be said with rugged case manufacturer, Peli Products UK. This time I hadn’t emailed in advance, but I sought them out as I am actually in the market for a number of new rugged cases – a new camera case, a 13″ laptop case and a GoPro case.

Whilst this time the guy I spoke to was nice and briefly showed me their new TrekPak dividers – which are pretty cool – I got the impression he didn’t really want to be at the show and he kind of fobbed me off with a brochure rather than trying to sell me the products that I had told him I was interesting in buying. The irony here being that when you go to the TrekPak part of their website, the opening image is that of a rugged case full of camera equipment with “Press” stickers all over them.

In all honesty I could go on about quite a few other companies much like these but I don’t want to have too much of a whinge about the show, so let’s move on to the good stuff.

I obviously paid a visit to the Janes stand first, had a quick coffee and chat – and it was nice to know that they’d heard of me 🙂

Next to the Janes stand was Keysight Technologies, well known manufacturers of Signal Generators, Oscilloscopes and Spectrum Analysers – and many, many other outstanding workbench solutions. I spoke to Radar, EW and Satellite solutions manager Erik Diez, who showed me one of their solutions used to analyse an unknown radar signal with the idea of creating a potential jammer, countermeasure or signal designation. It truly was an interesting chat and the demo of the equipment was very interesting – if only any of it was within my price range 🙂 Saying that, their entry stage Spectrum Analysers etc are comparable in price to the Rigol equipment I have at home.

Keysight’s UXR0134A Infiniium UXR-Series Oscilloscope (left and on monitor) linked into other components for signals analysis. 13 GHz bandwidth and four full bandwidth channels is just part of the specifications available.

I enjoyed my time with Erik, with both of us agreeing that when I retire I may be able to buy something from him 🙂

Wondering around, there were plenty of vehicles, weapons systems, EW systems, ELINT/COMINT/SIGINT companies to take a look at. There was a huge Turkish contingent who took over a large area of the north side of the Excel with pretty much all of the above on view.

I had a chuckle to myself as I walked through an area of companies selling UAV’s, straight into another area selling various weapons and systems designed to take drones out.

As well as technical solutions there were clothing/footwear companies – I had a good chat at footwear company Rocky Boots who have some nice military boots.

BAe were there in force with various future ship models, simulators and other technologies. I even bumped into old friend Jamie Hunter on their stand – we calculated that it was over 20 years since we last bumped into each other and travelled to various bases on photo trips.

Type 26 and Hunter class models on the BAe Systems stand

I would have taken more photos of the vehicles but the stands were generally pretty close and so it made it difficult for photos. Some though I did manage:

Oshkosh Defense Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). This vehicle will replace Humvee’s in the US forces and is already in service with the Marine Corps. The British Army also announced at DSEI that the JLTV is taking part in a two year contract to demonstrate its potential as a Multi Role Vehicle-Protected (MRV-P).

The 800 Titan is on offer by Polaris Government and Defense as a militarised version of their commercial skidoos.

Polaris also had a DAGOR A1 Ultra-Light Tactical Vehicle (ULTV) on show with additional pieces of equipment added on by the likes of FN Herstal’s medium pintle mount .50 cal FN M3M

I got to play with plenty of weapons. I was very happy on the Sig Sauer stand and spent some time in the pistol area. In comparison to some of the other companies, their handguns felt good and seemed to have a smoother slide – obvs no ammo was available. I was particularly happy with the SP2022 and if given the chance to try it out properly, I’d jump at it.

A plethora of SIG Sauer hand guns, with the SP2022 nearest

There were also plenty of assault rifles and machine pistols on display, along with various sights and suppressors

On a non-live ammo front, an interesting company here in the UK is Ultimate Training Munitions – UTM. They did have a “live firing” area at the show. Instead of being live ammunition however, UTM have created training ammunition that provides a realistic environment without the potential of death. With modifications to real weapons, this ammunition can be used in exercises giving troops/law enforcement agencies the chance to fire near real ammunition at one another and know when they’ve been hit by a projectile that has a plastic cover and a coloured marker.

I’ve got to say it was very good in the small range. I feel like the next time I’m down at Mildenhall I may request a visit.

My final port of call at DSEI was the Rohde & Schwarz stand. This was for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to spend a bit of time there as I knew their products would be very interesting and secondly – they had a bar with free Augustiner-Bräu Helles beer 🙂

The beer was great, one of my favourites on my regular visits to Bavaria. And I had a great chat with Jo who hosted me in the bar and out at the equipment on display.

R&S really do have an amazing input into many of the worlds military radio requirements. For instance, they recently provided the Royal Navy with the first land-based NAVICS radio system for the Type 26 City class FFGHM – with all ships of the class being fitted out with the integrated comms system. This will provide internal and external comms (both voice and data) via an IP network, all of which will be secure. The External VHF/UHF and HF comms will use M3SR Series 4400 and M3SR Series 4100 radios.

As well as VHF/UHF and HF comms, they will also be providing SATCOM and GMDSS systems, along with a joint venture with STS Defence for the Communication masts.

In total, the NAVICS system has been provided to over 40 navies. For the RN this includes the Queen Elizabeth class Aircraft carriers, the River class batch II patrol ships and the above mentioned Type 26’s.

Also of interest was the WPU2000 ELINT Processor, launched at the show.

The WPU2000 is a wideband processing unit – hence WPU – and has a 2 GHz instantaneous real time bandwidth. It is set out to replace the WPU500 which operates with a 500 MHz bandwidth. It collects, then processes and analyses radar signals such as those produced by low probability of intercept (LPI) radars and emissions from Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars. I was told that due to its sensitivity it can detect emmissions that may be invisible to ELINT and EW systems currently in use.

As standard, R&S ELINT and radar direction-finding systems comes complete with identification software, analysis software for ELINT signals, and a database system for radar/ELINT/EW data management.

From what I can gather, the system has had considerable interest. It is still under final tests I believe and will be available in 2020.

So, that’s my DSEI 2019 run down. Not that comprehensive really. I could literally spend months writing about the various pieces of equipment, weapons, radios and software that I spotted and was drawn to. I will follow this blog up very soon with a few individual articles on some of those that really caught my eye.

Murmansk-BN HF EW Complex

Murmansk-BN of the 475th Independent EW Centre near Sevastopol

Brief Murmansk-BN overview

Murmansk-BN has been operationally active from at least 2014 when the 475th Independent EW Centre of the Russian navy set up a complex in the Crimea south of Sevastopol. The system has a primary role of eliminating, or trying to eliminate, High Frequency (HF) broadcasts from NATO forces – in particular the HF Global Communications System of the United States (HFGCS).

HFGCS operates on well known HF frequencies with regular broadcasts of Emergency Action Messages (EAM’s) and other operational messages, phone patches etc. as required. To this date though, I am unaware of any reports that HFGCS has been interfered with by jamming. This in itself isn’t surprising. HF is a difficult thing to jam due to the very nature of using the ionosphere to carry the broadcasts. Throw in multiple frequencies in use at the same time, the same message being broadcast on numerous occasions, propagation and all other things related to HF reception means the message is likely to get through regardless of the attempts made to jam.

The Murmansk-BN complex is a fully mobile system and comprises of groups of up to four extendable antenna masts – two of which each on a dedicated Kamaz or Ural truck, which then tows a further antenna on a trailer. The masts extend to 32 metres in height. Each full Murmansk-BN complex normally has four of these antenna groups, making 16 antennas in total.

Further to that there are numerous support vehicles including a Kamaz 6350 Command vehicle and a Kamaz 6350 generator vehicle per four antenna group. Other vehicles include fuel bowsers and troop transport. Not always four antennas are used per group.

Murmansk-BN is in operation with units of both the Russian army and the navy – for the army with the 15th EW brigade in Tambov, 16th EW Brigade in Kursk, 18th EW Brigade in Yekaterinburg and 19th EW Brigade in Rassvet – for the navy with 186th Independent EW Centre of the Northern Fleet in Severomorsk, the 471st and 474th Independent EW Centres of the Pacific Fleet in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Shtykovo respectively, the previously mentioned 475th Independent EW Centre of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and the 841st Independent EW Centre of the Baltic Fleet in Yantarnyy.

It is highly likely that the 17th EW Brigade at Khabarovsk also has Murmansk-BN in operation but a this time I haven’t been able to locate any of the systems.

Screen grab from one of the Murmansk-BN videos showing an Icom IC- R8500 in use as the main receiver in each command vehicle

AOR 500 in a R330ZH Zhitel – image credited to
twower.livejournal.com

One aspect about the system is its use of analogue receivers rather than Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology – Icom IC-R8500 receivers have been noted in all the video footage available so far. This isn’t unusual for Russian EW systems – the AOR 5000 receiver is used in R330ZH Zhitel which is a mobile system primarily used in the jamming of satellite and cellular phone communication systems operated in the 100 to 2,000 MHz range. The AOR 5000 has multiple versions available, one of which has the cellular bands (824 to 849 MHz and 869 to 894 MHz) unblocked. Zhitel was used in the Crimean conflict with the high likelihood that the AOR 5000 was used to jam or intercept mobile phone communications. Recent reports have shown that Zhitel is still in use in the occupied Luhansk region.

Російські новітні системи озброєння – автоматизована станція перешкод Р-330Ж "Житель" та комплекс радіоелектронної боротьби "Тірада-2", зафіксовані Спеціальною моніторинговою місією ОБСЄ неподалік від н.п. Южна Ломуватка, на окупованій Росією частині Донбасу pic.twitter.com/AsKAIRUpQD

— UKR Mission to OSCE & UN in Vienna (@UKRinOSCE) April 3, 2019

I use an R8500 myself and it is an excellent receiver. I normally use it in conjunction with my SDR’s that provide me with a wider view of the HF bands so that I can search out signals. From the videos available online, the Russian military don’t do this but instead slow scan manually through the bands or scroll through frequencies saved to the receivers memory bank.

The receiver is linked to a PC using software that shows a visual spectrum taken from the audio output from the R8500, but this is limited to the mode in use. Video footage shows the likely use of AM mode to give as wide a visual spectrum as possible but this would be limited to the R8500’s 12 kHz maximum bandwidth. More on the software later.

The slow scan/memory scan method is not the best and would likely mean that any interception would be caught mid-way through a message. It is also time consuming. I am highly surprised there isn’t some sort of auto-scan software included. For instance I personally use df8ry’s CSVUserListBrowser to control not only my R8500 but most of my SDR’s. This can scan through stored frequencies on the Icom at a slow 1 second pace, but its better than sitting there turning a knob continuously for hours.

As the Icom is a receiver only, it needs to be linked to a transceiver using its CI-V remote jack point that then sends out the jamming signal – whether this then means another Icom transceiver is located within the command vehicle is unknown as, whilst confirmed from commentary and interviews with Russian personnel in the videos I found, there is no visual confirmation of what is used as the transmitter.

Each antenna group can operate individually or as multiples. Reports also state that the complexes can be integrated into the Russian EW command and control system.

The software

The software in use cannot be identified. It appears to operate like an automatic signals classifier, such as go2MONITOR by Procitec, but it is hard to assess whether it has this capability. It would be unusual not to have a classification capability, even if it meant manual selection of a signal.

There are a number of different screens, some tabulated, that control different functions, or provide different data.

One screen shows spectrum information split into four panels. The top panel shows the selected frequency, and what looks like audio taken from the Icom in AM-Wide mode – this differs from cuts to the Icom itself which shows it is in AM mode. If in AM-Wide it would mean the maximum audio spectrum available would be 12 kHz as this is all that the Icom can manage in this mode below 30 MHz, whilst AM would only produce a 5.5 kHz wide spectrum. However, using either of these modes would make it possible to visually obtain a signal from this.

What is interesting here though is that in the video, the top panel appears to show a bandwidth spread of 30 kHz with an area of 6 kHz in a lighter colour, possibly depicting the true area that a signal can be classified or monitored. 30 kHz is not a selectable bandwidth for the R8500 in any mode, with the maximum possible being 15 kHz above 30 MHz in WFM mode. Also of note is the noise floor indication which appears to be between -40dB and -50dB.

It could well be that this panel does not actually show a signal from the Icom, but could be the panel that shows the transmitter that produces the jamming signal.

The next two panels appear to show the signal with sensitivity information from the incoming audio. The final panel is unknown as it is not shown in any video close-up.

Another screen shows interface information to the bottom left. This has a number of tabs that control some the external elements that assist in the suppression of a signal. Connection status is shown by a green or red button.

Firstly, one tab shows the connection to a Protek KS-100M navigation device which is a GPS unit. This is connected to an antenna mounted to the top of the command vehicle and provides an accurate position for probable signal reception direction finding/triangulation purposes when connected to the other command vehicles KS-100M’s.

The KS-100M is also found in the Zhitel system as shown here in the far right panel. It is used for Direction Finding purposes in both systems – image credited to
twower.livejournal.com

To the left of the KS-100 tab are two unknown connections marked as ГТ-11and ГТ-11.1 (GT-11 and GT-11.1). ГТ in the Russian military is normally an abbreviation for rehepatop which translate to generator. In another part of one of the videos it shows the ГТ-11.1 title again, this time with four green boxes, each with what appears to be a tick box. Two of these appear to be connected as there is a joining line between them.

The final tab is unknown but marked as ГТ-205-ОПМ (GT-205-OPM) which if using the standard abbreviation format would also be related to a generator. However, the generator shown in the video appears to be named as an AD-100-T400-1R. Alternatively, you could break down the OPM part into two which would give supply (OP)/ engine (M).

What doesn’t quite tie up is that each four antenna group only has one generator, so does this section actually have something to do with the four antennas themselves and whether they have power going to them?

Above the four tabs is a box that is titled Information about current IRI. Below this is information on the signal being suppressed: Frequency – 9 961 02 kHz Type of target – unclassified Bandwidth – 3.36 kHz Duration – 16 msec Strength – 16 dB Bearing – 179 7 (1) – 0

This box is likely associated with the KS-100M tab.

The large window to the right shows what I thought at first was historic signal information in the selected bandwidth. However, looking closer I wonder if this is the case as the “signals” are too regular – they are evenly spaced. In other shots there are up to 20 signals shown. My thoughts are that these are connected to the KS-100M and are signal strengths of GLONASS GPS satellites. But again, without clearer screenshots or a confirmed ID on the software in use, this can only be guessed at.

There are numerous other tabs and screens available, but these are unreadable in the videos found.

Locations

The various units I have listed above. The sites used so far, despite Murmansk-BN being fully mobile, have been very close to the units home base. Despite the area required for a full complex deployment being large, they can be difficult to spot, but once you know the locations used – or the area – then it makes checking on them relatively easy.

The 15th EW Brigade at Tambov has not been observed on Google Earth (GE) as deployed as yet but the vehicles can be seen at their HQ at 52.666385N 41.537552E

Latest 15th EW Brigade site imagery near Tambov. Dated 13/11/18 and is the first time the Murmansk-BN was observed here.

The 15th EW HQ is situated in a large area of military ranges with plenty of surrounding free land available. It is presumed that this area will be used when setting up the complex. There is also an area to the NW that previously contained numerous antennas, but is now disused.

The 16th EW Brigade at Kursk uses a military training group for its deployment site. Only two antenna groups have been observed since first deployment in April 2015.

Latest 16th EW Brigade site imagery near Kursk at 51.713194N,
36.290736E. Dated 3/9/19

The 18th EW Brigade at Yekaterinburg is a very active unit with just two Murmansk-BN antenna groups in use at any one time according to GE imagery. Moreover, it seems to be a unit that likes to train in setting up the complex as it is quite often observed in different states. The Murmansk-Bn is spread over two sites – a permanent one (site one below) and a secondary site located in a field about 1.6km away (site two). In some imagery of site two only one antenna is up in two “groups” and quite often the site is empty.

The continuous erecting and disassembling of the complex’s could hint at the unit being involved in training. As shown in the image below it also tends to use truck mounted antennas at site two. There are no trailer mounted antennas visible, whilst they are in use at site one. However, the fact that there are six truck mounted here points to the 18th EW having a full compliment of Murmansk-BN equipment, despite only using two groups at the same time.

Murmansk-BN equipment of 18 EW Brigade at site two in a stored state

The 18th EW was also used in one of the videos. Comparing the video to GE imagery I was able to identify various features that confirmed that site two was used for the filming.

Site two confirmed as used in the Pravda.ru video

The 19th EW Brigade at Rassvet, near Rostov-on-Don, has had Murmansk-BN since at least 19/6/2016 when equipment first appeared in GE imagery at the HQ. Since then it would appear that it has not been deployed as the vehicles have stayed in a parked up state in all imagery from that date. The number of vehicles indicates only two groups have been allocated to the Brigade so far.

19th EW Brigade HQ in latest imagery dated 15/2/19

On the Russian navy side of things, the 186th Independent EW centre is based near Taybola at 68.515306N 33.290056E on the old airfield for the town. Taybola used to be a Soviet R-14 (SS-5 ‘Skean’) intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) base with at least two silo complexes, a rail head, and the airfield.

The latest imagery on GE has just two Murmansk-BN groups set up at the northern end of the runway and old dispersal, but older imagery has a further group half way down the runway to the south.

GE imagery dated 18/8/17 showing the three locations of Murmansk-BN groups. the 186th has had the Murmansk-BN capability since at least 20/8/15 according to GE

The 471st Independent EW centre at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, has a full complement of four Murmansk-BN antenna groups though it has had differing numbers in use since the system first arrived from at least 15/8/15. The latest imagery on GE below, dated from 3/11/18, shows just about a full complex in use. The NW group has one antenna missing.

471st Independent EW centre situated at 53.053583N 158.828178E

The 474th Independent EW Centre at Shtykovo, is also sited at a disused airfield. It has had three antenna groups in place at least once, but the latest GE imagery has just two in use.

The actual location of the 474th HQ is unknown and there no immediately close active military bases. There are numerous bases at a distance away, with a potential SIGINT site 12km to the SW. Analysis of these don’t provide any other Murmansk-BN vehicles.

The 475th Independent EW Centre is probably the most well known of the Murmansk-BN deployments. It is located to the south of Sevastopol in the Crimea at a coastal base and has been widely exposed on social media and articles since it became active. First shown in GE imagery dated 15/11/14 with one group, it has expanded to a full four group complex.

The 475th complex shown here, dated 26/8/18, with just the NW group active

It was news about the deployment of Murmansk-BN to the 841st Independent EW Centre at Yantarnyy in the Kaliningrad Oblast that drew my attention to the system. It is known that the 841st has a full compliment of four antenna groups but it is unusual to see all deployed. The image below, dated 11/9/17 is one of those times that it is fully active.

It is usually the northern site that is active when the 841st deploy. This is situated at 54.832506N 19.958467E. The “town” of Okunevo is actually a comms site.

The news I mention was reference the “new” deployment of Murmansk-BN to the Kaliningrad region, yet what is strange is that from GE analysis it is obvious the system has been in use there since at least 11/4/16 – so why this sudden hype? My only thought is that there was a major NATO exercise on in the region at the time which included USAF B-52’s carrying out Global Power missions from the US to Europe.

Was this news a counter to the US stating that Russian forces could interfere with their operations?

From all accounts, and from reported loggings of HFGCS messages since the Murmansk-BN system has been available for use, there has been zero suppression of any HFGCS frequencies that I’m aware of.

This then, with the fact that most units have not fully deployed their systems, makes me wonder whether Murmansk-BN is not quite so good as expected and claimed.

Here are the videos used for analysis:

This is the longer of the two videos and actually contains the second one.

https://www.yacoline.com/video/168091/

Second, shorter video showing the 186th Independent EW centre