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Simultaneously, Russian ground forces have had a hell of a time using their encrypted radios, resulting in the logistical and tactical omnishambles observed by

Simultaneously, Russian ground forces have had a hell of a time using their encrypted radios, resulting in the logistical and tactical omnishambles observed by many, and fallback transmitting in the clear using civilian ham radios or cell phones. Some have attributed this to difficulty in distributing encryption keys to forward units or just general incompetence, but one fun theory I saw on twitter is that Russia uses SDRs somewhere in their radio net and a similar poison packet bricked them all.

rasz 5y ago
https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1367614591698690056 https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1367614591698690056 >Interfax reports that the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and the most senior communications officer in the Russian military, Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, has been arrested for fraud in relation to the purchase of special equipment. >The case involves Colonel Pavel Kutakhov, who was arrested last week for stealing an estimated 30 M RUB from an 800 M RUB contract for comm systems. 30M rubles, pocket change >Kommersant reports that Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, head of Russia's Signal Troops and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was charged in the theft of 2.2 B RUB and was hospitalized after suffering a hypertensive crisis during his interrogation 2B rubles, now we are starting to talk real money >After expanding their investigation, investigators discovered that Russian troops had received equipment that was made in China even though it was supposed to be from Russia (they changed the labels). >The investigation isn't limited to 2.2 B RUB worth of theft, but also to fraud related to contracts for the Azart comm system built by NPO Angstrem JSC and Yaroslavl Radio Plant. Of 18 B RUB spent on the radios, 6.5 B RUB might have been stolen due to artificially high prices 6B rubles, ouch >Arslanov says that they saved so much on the purchase of R-187-P1 Azart radios, 6.7 B RUB of the contract's 18.5 B RUB was allegedly embezzled, because the radios were purchased from China in almost finished form with some components added in Russia so corruption and potentially backdoored by China and this is how you end up with https://twitter.com/radio_research/status/1500847259948236802 https://twitter.com/radio_research/status/150084725994823680... Chechen soldiers wearing 3 non military radios (susceptible to basic radio finding/tracking), one being Motorola DRM and two analogs.
warner25 5y ago
To be fair, ten years ago in Afghanistan I observed a lot of difficulty with encrypted radios on the US side too. The SATCOM radios on our very expensive aircraft seemed to work only a bit more than half the time. Actual military radios are cumbersome and limited, and the keys change constantly, and the keys are a pain to load. Civilian cellphones and cheap walkie-talkies were used for a lot of communications that probably should have been encrypted.
chimpansteve 5y ago
This is an eye opening thread, to say the least https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500959074653024259 https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500959074653024259

rasz 5y ago

https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1367614591698690056 https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1367614591698690056 >Interfax reports that the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and the most senior communications officer in the Russian military, Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, has been arrested for fraud in relation to the purchase of special equipment. >The case involves Colonel Pavel Kutakhov, who was arrested last week for stealing an estimated 30 M RUB from an 800 M RUB contract for comm systems. 30M rubles, pocket change >Kommersant reports that Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, head of Russia's Signal Troops and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was charged in the theft of 2.2 B RUB and was hospitalized after suffering a hypertensive crisis during his interrogation 2B rubles, now we are starting to talk real money >After expanding their investigation, investigators discovered that Russian troops had received equipment that was made in China even though it was supposed to be from Russia (they changed the labels). >The investigation isn't limited to 2.2 B RUB worth of theft, but also to fraud related to contracts for the Azart comm system built by NPO Angstrem JSC and Yaroslavl Radio Plant. Of 18 B RUB spent on the radios, 6.5 B RUB might have been stolen due to artificially high prices 6B rubles, ouch >Arslanov says that they saved so much on the purchase of R-187-P1 Azart radios, 6.7 B RUB of the contract's 18.5 B RUB was allegedly embezzled, because the radios were purchased from China in almost finished form with some components added in Russia so corruption and potentially backdoored by China and this is how you end up with https://twitter.com/radio_research/status/1500847259948236802 https://twitter.com/radio_research/status/150084725994823680... Chechen soldiers wearing 3 non military radios (susceptible to basic radio finding/tracking), one being Motorola DRM and two analogs.

warner25 5y ago

To be fair, ten years ago in Afghanistan I observed a lot of difficulty with encrypted radios on the US side too. The SATCOM radios on our very expensive aircraft seemed to work only a bit more than half the time. Actual military radios are cumbersome and limited, and the keys change constantly, and the keys are a pain to load. Civilian cellphones and cheap walkie-talkies were used for a lot of communications that probably should have been encrypted.

chimpansteve 5y ago

This is an eye opening thread, to say the least https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500959074653024259 https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500959074653024259