Divnomorye

A secretive Russian strategic electronic-warfare complex, reported to combine reconnaissance, command-post and radar-jamming functions against airborne, ground-based and space-linked sensors.

Overview

Divnomorye, most often referenced in later open sources as Divnomorye-U, is a Russian ground-based electronic-warfare system associated with the modernization of Russia's Electronic Warfare Troops. It is described in Russian-sourced reporting as a strategic-level complex intended to absorb functions previously distributed across the Moskva-1, Krasukha-2 and Krasukha-4 families: electronic reconnaissance, command-and-control support, and jamming of radar and other radio-electronic systems.

The system is unusually opaque even by Russian EW standards. Open-source researcher Bart Hendrickx notes in The Space Review that no positively identified public photograph of Divnomorye exists, and that some imagery captioned as Divnomorye actually depicts Krasukha-2. As a result, public descriptions of its vehicle layout, antennas, range and automation should be treated as attributed Russian or secondary-source claims rather than verified specifications.

Development

KRET, the Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies holding within Rostec, received the government development contract for Divnomorye on 20 December 2012 and assigned engineering work to VNII Gradient in Rostov-on-Don on 30 April 2013, according to procurement records reviewed by The Space Review. The same investigation identifies VNII Gradient as the apparent de facto prime design organization and names TsNII EISU, NPTs Sapsan and the Kaluga Radiotechnical Scientific Research Institute as reported subcontractors.

The program was publicly disclosed in December 2013 by KRET director Nikolai Kolesov, who described Divnomorye as an improved version of the Moskva-1 reconnaissance and command-post complex with a role in Russia's "space defense," with deployment then expected by early 2016. That schedule appears to have slipped: at MAKS 2017, a KRET official said testing had begun on a still-unnamed successor intended to replace Krasukha-2 and Krasukha-4 while targeting both air-based and space-based systems, as summarized by The Space Review.

In May 2018, Russian Ministry of Defense-linked sources cited in Russian media and relayed by the Jamestown Foundation said Divnomorye was expected to begin deployment with the EW Troops later that year. Those reports characterized it as a strategic-level system able to replace Moskva, Krasukha-2 and Krasukha-4 functions in one complex, but no independent public source has confirmed an in-service date, serial quantity or unit inventory.

Procurement documentation also shows a confusing set of suffixed designations, including Divnomorye-U, U-S, U-R, U-KIZ, T, T-P, M, MU, MR and MUSP, without public confirmation of what each denotes. One 2018 contract cited by The Space Review called for refining software to calculate satellite trajectories, supporting the assessment that the program has a space-related targeting or support function.

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