The R-330Zh Zhitel is a mobile truck-mounted electronic warfare jamming communication station, manufactured by NVP Protek and fielded by the

Armed Forces of the Russian Federation The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent comba ...

(AFRF). It is preferably deployed within range of the frontline, and is mounted on a Ural-43203 or KamAZ-43114 three-axle truck.

System

One Zhitel system consists of two elements: a wheeled platform with an operator station for the reconnaissance system (0.1–2 GHz frequency range) and a trailer with emitters and antennas of the active jamming system. According to the official information, the system's purpose is to detect, track and jam the

Inmarsat Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...

and

Iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

satellite communications and GSM-1900 cellphones, and also to act against GPS navigation system utilizing the NAVSTAR satellites. Activation of the station jams all communications and navigation systems. Zhitel covers a waveband of 100 MHz to two gigahertz; this allows attack on both military and civilian communications; for example V/UHF

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

RF links in addition to GNSS satcom signals. The Zhitel system is designed to protect brigade- or division-level command posts against

precision-guided munition A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a type of weapon system that integrates advanced guidance and control systems, such as Global Positioning System, GPS, laser guidance, or Infrared ...

s (PGMs). It is reportedly able to jam

and

satellite broadcasts within a limited region.

History

The Zhitel system was allegedly employed during the 1996 assassination of the President of Ichkeria,

Dzhokhar Dudayev Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (born Dudin Musa-Khant Dzhokhar; 15 February 1944 – 21 April 1996) was a Chechen politician, statesman and military leader of the 1990s Chechen independence movement from Russia. He served as the first president o ...

. The Zhitel system was allegedly used in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. In spring 2014 a Zhitel system was spotted on the road to

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, as well as in the Donbas region at various times over the pre-invasion

War in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

period of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. In November 2018 difficulties with communications were reported in the

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

region of Norway and the Zhitel system was suspected. In spring 2019 Zhitel systems were reported to be in the Donbas region of Ukraine. This was simultaneous with "a sharp uptick of drone losses" remarked by both the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the Ukrainian military. A Zhitel system was spotted by the OSCE SMMU near Luhansk city. On 14 June 2019, Russia was reported to have trialled new techniques with its Zhitel systems, which were able to interfere with satellite communications equipment, navigation systems and mobile phones within a 30 km radius. On 28 November 2020, during the

, a Zhitel system was spotted by an

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

drone, a few kilometres north-west of Kovske, Novoazovsk Raion of

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, within reach of the border with the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In 2021, the AFRF tried to use Zhitel systems to jam signals from RQ-4 drones. In May 2022 the Ukrainians destroyed a Zhitel system by drone-targeted artillery. In September 2022 the Zhitel system was reported to jam the AWACS E-3 Sentry and AEW E-2 Hawkeye airborne warning and control aircraft, which tried to locate Russian attack aircraft in flight. On 26 September 2022, during the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, a Zhitel system was destroyed somewhere in the

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

region, with the aid of a Bayraktar TB-2 drone. On 26 March 2023, Ukraine reported the destruction of a Zhitel system by drone-targeted artillery, by an

M982 Excalibur The M982 Excalibur (previously XM982) is a 155 mm extended-range guided artillery shell developed in a collaborative effort between the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineerin ...

PGM with the help of a targeting drone. On 6 June 2023, the

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi) is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831 by the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley ...

(RUSI) have done a paper on the jamming of

Joint Direct Attack Munitions The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs", into all-weather precision-guided munitions (PGMs). JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Glo ...

(JDAMs) by Russian forces. The paper notes that the Russian R-330Zh Zhitel impacted GPS signals that JDAMs rely on. Having "travelled up to 10,900 nautical miles (20,200 km) from the satellite to Earth", the GPS signals can be weak when compared to those broadcast at ground level. This directly affects the JDAM's accuracy which is its key selling point. When the target is small the JDAM must fall back on its Inertial Navigation System (INS). With GPS signals a JDAM, on open source figures, can hit within "5 m (16 ft) of a target or less". Relying on INS then the accuracy falls to "within 30 m (98 ft) of the target". Ukrainian forces have been able to locate these jammers and hit them with "kinetic" attacks such as artillery. Some Russian EW units have been targeted and lost equipment. This also affects the accuracy of

HIMARS The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS ) is a light multiple rocket launcher developed in the late 1990s for the United States Army and mounted on a standard U.S. Army Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) M1140 truck frame ...

strikes, which has forced the US to modify the software for GMLRS fired by HIMARS.

References

{{reflist Wheeled military vehicles Electronic warfare equipment Electronic countermeasures Military vehicles of Russia Military electronics of Russia 20th-century military vehicles