A LOOK AT THE BAOFENG AT WAR

Originally published here.

The Russian military has used civilian mobile phones and radios for their communications, including Chinese-made civilian handheld radio, during the ongoing Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to the Defense Express magazine, the Russian military is using the BaoFeng UV-82HP radios for communication within the frontline units currently stationed in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military manages to seize Russian combat vehicles and equipment, among which were frequent Chinese radio stations and documents with call signs and radio frequencies for communication in a highly congested and dynamic operating environment.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) noted that the BaoFeng UV-82HP radio uses V/UHF wavebands and lacks military-grade encryption. Why it was reportedly in the possession of Russian troops is unknown. However, this triggered immediate speculation on the health and performance of Russian Armed Forces radio communications.

RUSI says that evidence of Russian communications in Ukraine indicates that the modernization of the Russian Armed Forces has been troubled, causing operational and tactical challenges.

“Open-source intelligence and Ukrainian reports suggest that radio communications across the Russian forces are poor, leading to makeshift solutions including the use of unencrypted high frequency (HF) radio for long-range communications and mobile phones to communicate,” said RUSI’s report.

At the same time, Russian soldiers themselves note that the Ukrainian army uses the latest tactical radios manufactured by Harris, Motorola and Aselsan.

Ukrainian tactical radio captured by Russian soldiers

By NC ScoutPublished On: May 2, 2022Categories: AP Staff, Intelligence8 Comments

About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

8 Comments

American Yeoman May 2, 2022 at 15:29

Historically, so many of the Russian “super weapons and systems” have turned out to not be so super after all. Even IF they have cutting edge weapons, they field very small numbers of them- they have for example maybe 5 Operational SU 57’s…. FIVE. We have nearly 200 5th Generation YF 22’s by contrast. They had 10,000 tanks in inventory before the invasion….They were supposed to have over 2,000 Armatas in inventory by now….MAYBE they will get the first 100 delivered this year, maybe– but doubtful as they depend on much Western tech for their advanced military systems.

Whether you think the Armata or SU 57 is better, is cheaper, the Russians get a better bang for their buck, our stuff has glitches too…all of which may be true, they simply don’t have the numbers of high tech equipment the West does. The YF 22 is getting better all the time, why? Because we have actually deployed them, in real numbers, that matters. This shouldn’t be controversial, it’s simply fact.
- Johnny Paratrooper May 2, 2022 at 20:22
  
  It’s my understanding that the Armada was a test platform; Not the super tank that it was reported to be. The Russians chose to upgrade their current inventory with force multipliers and focus on better training and benefits for soldiers.
  
  In regards to air power, it would appear that S-500’s and 21st century EWS are cheaper than 5th generation aircraft and countless hours of training.
  
  We won the Fighter vs. Fighter arial war. But appear to have lost the field grade EWS battle.
  - American Yeoman May 2, 2022 at 21:51
    
    Russian Defense spokesman had them fielding over 2000 Armatas by now. Go see the Wikipedia article on it, they show several Russian sources quoting the initial intention to produce over 2000 of them and have them in service by 2020. They’ve made almost none in serial production….
    
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-14_Armata
Überdeplorable Psychedelic Cat Grass May 2, 2022 at 17:06

Are there any Russian speakers that can translate what I assume is a list of Tx/Rx channels on the right side of that photo?

Even though this shows that the regular military is not up to par, if they are following proper SOI they still should be able to do some damage with these.
- Juri May 3, 2022 at 12:15
  
  Yep, this is the list of commanders with their main frequencies and spare frequencies. . And if this list is not another propaganda hoax, then they are regulars
  ГАД …. горная артиллерийская дивизион … mountain artillery division.
  
  Division has different meaning in Russian, it is basically company size unit. As the table reads they have 3 batteries , 2 guns in each. So relatively small 6 gun strong unit.
Dean May 3, 2022 at 11:22

Sounds like the Russians would benefit by taking the basic RTO class…
- NC Scout May 3, 2022 at 11:29
  
  :D
Ghostmann May 3, 2022 at 14:19

Every single advancement is favoring the partisan/light infantry. Every single one. From affordable drones to radios to weaponry. Parity might be a real thing again. Especially if you stay mobile and don’t try to refight the Somme.