Newly minted United Kingdom (UK) Labor Prime Minister Andy Burnham is signing off on providing defense technology to Ukraine designed to neutralize the Russian air defenses used to intercept Kyiv’s missiles and drones.
The UK will hand over the intellectual property (IP) for the new technology so that Ukraine can build this system on its own under license in-country rather than relying on deliveries from the UK for its production lines.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Josiah “Sirius” Gaffney, Pacific Air Forces Demonstration Team commander, prepares to fly a practice sortie before the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 11, 2021. In addition to the PACAF F-16 Demonstration Team routine, the air show will highlight a variety of U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft showcasing the range of U.S. military airpower capabilities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew Kakaris)
Bohdan, a drone pilot from the Unmanned Systems Battalion of Ukraine’s 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade, pilots an FPV drone in Donetsk Oblast during active battle operations. Photo: David Kirichenko
Burnham met three days ago with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss areas of cooperation that would continue along the same lines as the other UK governments since the war against Russia’s unprovoked invasion began.
The leaders met at a UK naval base with around 200 Ukrainian military personnel who were completing a three-week training exercise in the UK focused on maritime defense and Black Sea mine countermeasures
The Prime Minister reportedly insisted that Britain’s support for Kyiv “remains unwavering” as the Ukrainian president became his first international visitor since assuming office.
During a meeting at a naval yard, the two discussed an agreement that would grant Ukraine a license to mass-produce a UK-designed signal jammer.
The jammer is a part of a project called Stone Cloak. It is to be installed on Ukrainian attack drones and will reportedly blind Russian air defense systems from tracking and shooting them down.
Jamming Technique
The Stone Cloak, as it exists today, is a module installed on board an attack drone that is roughly the size of an iPad-type tablet computer. The UK has previously supplied Ukraine with thousands of these pieces of kit.
Stone Cloak is a system designed to spoof or “lie” to an air defense system, as opposed to more traditional jamming methods that rely on overpowering or blinding the target acquisition system to achieve a firing solution.
The drawback with these high-power jammers is that they can be energy-intensive and require a large on-board power source, but the strength of the signal makes them vulnerable to any “home on jam” anti-radiation munition.
High-power jammers are also only effective until an enemy system collects enough recordings of the jammer’s signal and adapts its own self-protection systems to defeat it.
The operating principle of Stone Cloak is believed to be one that generates multiple false targets on hostile radar screens.
When the operator of an air defense system looks at the radar screen, instead of just a single target, there is a cluster of ghost targets.
This jamming methodology makes it almost impossible to differentiate the actual target from the false, “ghost” returns.
Ukraine to Receive UK Intellectual Property Rights
Up to this point, Stone Cloak has been provided to Ukraine off-the-shelf as a production input to be plugged into a drone coming off the production line like any other on-board system component sourced from abroad.
In speaking of the system and its being provided to Ukraine for its attack drones, the new PM stated, “Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve long-lasting and just peace for Ukraine.
Stone Cloak is the best of home-grown British innovation and proven on the frontline, and it will be vital to protecting our security in both our countries.”
In this vein, the PM announced on Monday that the UK is transferring intellectual property rights to Ukraine so the country can build the system in its own production facilities.
It can then be inserted into Ukraine’s own home-grown airborne weapon systems as the Ukrainian armed forces see fit.
Among other applications, this jamming system is expected to be used in several upcoming weapons systems.
These include Project Brakestop, a new low-cost cruise missile being developed in the UK for Ukraine.
The missile’s development began under the Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) Taskforce Kindred in November 2024.
The objective given to UK industry was to develop a low-cost, ground-launched strike weapon capable of striking targets more than 500km away while carrying a 225kg warhead.
The UK is following in the footsteps of the US and France, both of which have agreed to turn over intellectual property for the Patriot system’s interceptor missiles and the SCALP air-launched cruise missile that has been integrated on Ukrainian fighter aircraft.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
