BriteStorm turns cheap drones into ‘ghost’ makers in the sky to fool enemies

Italy’s Leonardo has unveiled its latest all-singing-all-dancing electronic warfare (EW) system, BriteStorm. Small enough to be retrofitted to aircraft, drones, and missiles, this EW system can overwhelm enemy radar systems or fool them into “detecting” phantom targets.

The low-cost system could also be installed on “loyal wingman” drones to generate phantom formations of jet fighters to protect the real ones. The device can also be deployed as a decoy from chaff or flare dispensers.

Like its predecessor, BriteStorm is a stand-in jamming device that works by absorbing incoming radar, emulating its frequency, and beaming a false “return” signal.

Leonardo, headquartered in Italy, officially unveiled BriteStorm at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) leading annual conference, which opened today in Washington, D.C. The company’s subsidiary, based in the United Kingdom, has led the development of the new jammer and the preceding BriteCloud decoy.

BriteStorm weighs as little as 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg), which is bigger than BriteCloud but still a very small unit. The kit comes with a platform-specific antenna, transmit-receive modules, and Leonardo’s Miniature Technique Generator.

BriteStorm: hiding in plain sight

“BriteStorm is platform agnostic… You can put it on almost anything, as long as it has a payload bay and the power of equivalent of something like a Humvee battery,” Michael Lea, Vice President Of Sales for Electronic Warfare at Leonardo, explained at AUSA.

“And when it comes to price, BriteStorm has been designed to sit at a point that makes it attritable. … [meaning it] is not prohibitively expensive, and it won’t cause a major strategic, strategic issue if lost,” Lea added.

Leonardo explains that BriteStorm can be used as an “airborne electronic warfare capability deployed ahead of the main force to deliver high-powered interference against a wide spectrum of threats.”

According to a company press release , BriteStorm degrades the enemy’s integrated air defense system network (IADS), suppressing its ability to detect and lock onto other platforms. This helps in protecting friendly forces and enabling their mission.

“BriteStorm is the first stand-in jammer on the market to use the gold-standard digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) technology. This means it can record the pulse of an enemy radar system perfectly,” Lea explained. “The pulse is then manipulated and projected back, confusing the enemy and significantly degrading their situational awareness,” he added.

“BriteStorm is highly effective against radars in the NATO A to J bands,” Lea continued. “This means that BriteStorm is effective against all types of… surveillance, target acquisition, and tracking radars,” he told AUSA attendees.

Phantom signals to confuse enemy defenses

The War Zone has previously reported that BriteStorm’s predecessor, BriteCloud, can use DRFM’s signal mimicry and can create multiple fake targets to confuse and overwhelm radar operators.

When integrated into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the new BriteStorm jammers could be deployed from various directions simultaneously, making it harder for enemy defenders to prioritize their resources in a target area.

Leonardo explains that BriteStorm can also function by utilizing more traditional jamming techniques, “bombarding the enemy system with electronic noise.” This means that BriteStorm’s jammers could help protect friendly manned and unmanned aircraft during operations.

It could also help mask cruise missiles from enemy air defenses, including diverting surface-to-air missiles away from the main force. It is yet to be seen how military forces will integrate BriteStorm into their existing assets, but the U.S. military and other NATO forces will likely take great interest in it.