The German permanent brigade stationed in Lithuania is set to leverage electronic warfare capabilities to provide early warnings regarding ongoing military activities in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and neighboring Belarus, according to the head of the German military’s cyber structure, as reported by Reuters.
Scheduled for full deployment next year, the brigade will also gather data on Russian and Belarusian military emitters and radar systems to update the electronic warfare databases utilized by German and allied forces, stated Vice Admiral Thomas Daum.
“If anything occurs, these units will identify it. We will input the information into our electronic warfare databases, which will then notify all our systems of any new radar on the Belarusian side,” Daum explained.
The Vice Admiral noted that Russia’s activities in certain areas of Europe have reached what he termed a “second phase, where the intention is to cause harm,” while remaining below the threshold of armed conflict. “The cyber-information domain is not yet at war, but it is no longer at peace,” Daum remarked.
He further elaborated that an earlier phase focused on the discreet penetration of Western networks through cyberattacks and establishing footholds within systems.
In August, the German cabinet approved measures expected to receive parliamentary endorsement, aimed at granting intelligence services new powers to intercept communications and disrupt the operations of foreign adversaries, responding to what officials describe as a growing threat from cyber and hybrid attacks.
The German military is currently testing various electronic warfare systems in Lithuania, including drone detection tools, signal interceptors, jamming devices, and sensors designed to relay battlefield data to remote analysts.
Before the onset of the war in Ukraine, the German military struggled to convince commercial companies to supply such systems, said Patrick Jeschke, head of the Bundeswehr’s cyber innovation center.
The challenge has shifted from sourcing suppliers to selecting the most promising technologies from a flood of proposals, he noted.
“In recent decades, we haven’t invested significantly in new capabilities. We relied on what we had because we were focused on missions abroad, in Afghanistan and elsewhere,” Daum explained, adding that “there is now a need to enhance our capabilities.”
