Kyiv Bets on Low-Cost EW 'Lima' to Spoof Russian Drones as Interceptor Shortage Grow

As Ukraine faces shortages of air defense missiles, it is increasingly relying on the low-cost “Lima” electronic warfare system to disrupt and redirect Russian drones and missiles.

According to a Politico report, Lima, developed by Ukrainian defense startup Cascade Systems (registered in the United States), works by interfering with satellite navigation signals rather than physically destroying incoming weapons.

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Unlike traditional kinetic air defense systems shooting down a target with a flying projectile, Lima jams and spoofs GPS/GLONASS guidance, causing Russian drones and missiles to veer off course, rendering attacking weapons ineffective by increasing miss distance.

If satellite signals are blocked, weapons can switch to inertial navigation, but accuracy may drift by around 2,000 meters per 100 km traveled.

“When Lima is on, it makes missile deviation even greater. In addition to simply suppressing navigation, we use spoofing and the substitution of coordinates by several kilometers. We can make their missiles fall in fields instead of hitting their targets,” said a developer known as “Alchemist,” a commander of Ukraine’s Night Watch electronic warfare unit.

He added that in some cases, systems can make incoming weapons believe they are located elsewhere entirely: “Some past attacks were diverted by making the incoming weapons think they are in Peru.”

The system can also create electronic “dead zones” where drones lose navigation entirely.

“When we create a wide enough zone, protected by Lima stations, a missile won’t even hit the city. We will send it into an open field,” Alchemist said.

Cascade Systems says each unit costs up to 3 million hryvnia ($68,000), and around 30 to 100 units may be needed to protect a major city – roughly €5 million (US 5.8 million)in total, comparable to the cost of a single Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missile.

The company has supplied more than 400 Lima systems, which began deployment in July 2024 and were expanded to protect civilian infrastructure by October 2025.

Cascade claims the system has jammed more than 20,500 Shahed drones and misdirected dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles over the past 18 months.

Ukrainian military officials say the system is now part of a broader layered air defense network.

“The latest iterations of Lima can suppress long-range weapons – including ballistic missiles – which rely on systems such as Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation,” said Maksym Skoretsky, head of the Ukrainian Land Forces’ electronic warfare department.

However, officials caution that electronic warfare does not eliminate threats entirely.

“Jammed Russian drones and missiles still fall and hit something, causing damage,” Skoretsky said. “Conventional kinetic air defenses destroy an incoming missile or drone in the air; the resulting debris still hits the ground but causes less damage than an intact redirected weapon.”

Still, he added: “However, will Russian ballistic missiles hit the desired target when Lima is on? I would say unlikely.”

Ukraine’s electronic warfare sector has rapidly evolved since 2022, when early versions of Lima were first developed to counter Russian cruise missiles. The system initially faced skepticism from officials and commanders, with Cascade Systems investing more than $2 million of its own funds before securing state contracts last year.

Electronic warfare remains a constant technological contest between Ukraine and Russia. As Ukraine improves its systems, Russia adapts its weapons with upgraded navigation and anti-jamming technologies, including Kometa antennas introduced in 2025.

“That’s when real life started,” Alchemist said. “We were living in our lab, trying to crack the new Russian antennas.”

Engineers later developed an upgraded version, Lima Quant, designed to counter improved Russian systems using higher-frequency signals and enhanced spoofing techniques.

“We constantly change Lima based on characteristics of Russian weapons, analyze hits, and provide recommendations to the general staff on where to put it and how,” he added. “War evolves all the time.”

Earlier, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that Ukraine aims to achieve a stable 95% intercept rate for aerial targets.

According to Fedorov, Ukraine’s “small” air defense system has significantly improved Shahed intercept rates.

Over the past four months, the share of drones destroyed by interceptor drones has doubled, even as Russia increased Shahed launches by around 35% every month. Supplies of interceptor drones also rose to 2.6 times the original quantity during the same period.

He also revealed that 27 Ukrainian enterprises have joined a pilot private air defense project, forming their own air defense groups in coordination with the Air Force.

At the same time, Ukraine is developing low-cost interceptor missiles designed to counter both current Shahed drones and future jet-powered variants. Several systems are already undergoing testing.

The program, launched on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s orders, is focused on mass-producing affordable air defense solutions as Russia intensifies drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Fedorov said Ukraine’s long-term objective is to build an “anti-drone dome” capable of destroying aerial threats before they reach critical targets.

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