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Various reports on the feats of Russian ECW systems in Syria against drones, e.g.

According to a report published by Avia.Pro, an Israeli drone used in an air strike in Syria was shot down by the Russian electronic warfare system Krasukha-4. Russian forces on the ground managed to salvage the wreckage and took it away for examination.

(Note that Krasukha-4 is not a gun/missile system in itself.)

Or (Feb 3, 2020):

Russian electronic warfare (EW) system de-activated the control system of hostile drones launched by terrorists at its Hmeymim air base in Syria yesterday.

This is the first time that the Russian command has reported the use of EW system to defeat drones. Earlier attacks on the Hmeymim air base have been repelled by the Pantsir-S gun-missile system or similar surface-to-air weapons that shot down the drones from the sky.

"At about 23:00 Moscow time on February 1, airspace control tools of the Russian airbase at Hmeymim stopped a cluster of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) launched from militants-controlled territory of the Idlib de-escalation zone. The base’s electronic warfare systems took over control of the UAVs and deactivated their control systems," he said.

Basically, do Western intelligence analysts (e.g. CIA) assess that these are real capabilities that Russia has now, or do they dismiss them (for now) as propaganda?

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    I would add, though, that there's no doubt than a sufficiently intense radio/microwave beam could jam or disable the controls of a drone. The question is how intense, and at what distance this intensity would be achievable (especially if the drone was "military grade" and hence "hardened" against RFI). – Daniel R Hicks Apr 26 '20 at 21:10
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    Does jamming count as "took over control"? They'd be taking away control in order to make it crash, that's not the same as taking over full control. – gerrit Apr 27 '20 at 08:44
  • @gerrit - Jamming the controls would likely be sufficient to "shoot it down". – Daniel R Hicks Apr 27 '20 at 20:40
  • I'm so confident, that I'll say 100% yes. Simply, because the technology already exists. – Travis Wells Apr 27 '20 at 22:14
  • @DanielRHicks If all I can do is make it crash I'm not taking over control. I'm taking away control from the operator such that nobody is in control. – gerrit Apr 28 '20 at 07:12
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    @gerrit - The first claim is "an Israeli drone used in an air strike in Syria was **shot down** by the Russian electronic warfare system Krasukha-4." – Daniel R Hicks Apr 28 '20 at 11:50
  • @DanielRHicks Yes, that works. The second claim is more far-fetched. – gerrit Apr 28 '20 at 12:00
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    IIRC a while back the Iranians managed to get their hands on an American RQ-170. They claimed they did it with a combination of jamming and GPS spoofing, which allowed them to fool it's navigation system and guide it into a safe landing. It's not proven that they did, but it seems probable as the drone was not damaged as you would expect from a crash. If they can do it, then it would not be surprising if Russia can too - they are known to sell/share weapons and drone technology. So I'd say the claim is believable, but any real evidence either way is likely to be secret. – Jack B Apr 28 '20 at 18:05

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