German troops in Lithuania monitor the Belarus border with sensors

In a forest near the Lithuanian airfield of Paluknys, German troops are fixing mobile sensors to trees that pick up signals from Russian and Belarusian radars and radios. According to Reuters, this is part of the permanent German brigade in Lithuania, which is due to have about 4,800 soldiers by next year.

Sensors instead of cameras

The systems do not track images or sound but signals: they register what radars, radios and other military equipment are emitting across the border. Operators sit in camouflaged shelters and analyze the data on computers. One soldier said an operator can handle about fifteen systems at once. They work twelve-hour shifts, with one person sleeping while the other is on duty.

Attention is directed two ways: at Russia’s Kaliningrad, the enclave between Lithuania and Poland, and at Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally. The airfield is about 35 kilometers from the Belarusian border and roughly 140 from the border of the Kaliningrad region. The brigade, Rear Admiral Daum said, needs to know “whether something is happening in Kaliningrad or on the Belarusian side.” He was speaking of the 45th Panzer Brigade, which Germany is permanently establishing in Lithuania.

Warning in advance

Russian and Belarusian units cannot do without electronics: when they move, they switch on radars and radios. If more of these appear across the border, or new ones show up, that is the first sign of preparation. “If something happens, these units will notice it,” Daum told Reuters, speaking of the German electronic warfare specialists.

The second task looks further ahead. Every type of radar has its own electronic “fingerprint.” The sensors record it, and the Germans store it in databases used by their own and allied weapons systems. If a new air-defense radar appears on the Belarusian side, the onboard systems of Eurofighter jets and the Lithuanian army’s equipment will know about it. A pilot will realize that he is being targeted.

Besides sensors, the army in Lithuania is testing drone detectors, a small interceptor drone, a signal jammer and an acoustic radar that recognizes drones by sound. The problem is not a lack of data but a flood of it. “The task is not to find some signals, but to recognize the important ones,” says Patrick Jesche, who is responsible for cooperation with start-ups at the Bundeswehr’s cyber innovation center.

The second phase of Russian operations

Daum describes the mission as deterrence. “Right now this is not about defense, because there is no conflict. It is about intimidation that clearly says: don’t come here, don’t try anything, because we are already here,” he said.

At the same time, he warned that the situation must not be underestimated: “Cyberspace and the information space are not yet at war, but this is no longer peace.” According to Daum, Russia is in the second phase of hostile operations. In the first, it quietly penetrated Western computer networks and gained a foothold in them. In the second, it wants to do active harm, but in a way that cannot yet be called a military attack. The admiral counts sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks and signal jamming among such steps, as well as information campaigns aimed at turning Lithuanian society against the presence of German troops.

Germany also wants to respond to such threats at home, Reuters notes. In August the government approved a reform under which the intelligence services would be able to penetrate attackers’ systems, copy or delete data and disable the tools of foreign states. The bill still needs approval from the Bundestag.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz