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“Pew, pew, pew!” A woman wearing sneakers and high-waisted pink shorts says cheerfully in a video uploaded to TikTok. She stands on what appears to be an artificial surface while explaining how to use a black device that looks like a large laser gun. “Jammer gun, good,” she added, giving her a thumbs-up. “Call me!”
These days, almost any product is available for purchase on TikTok directly from Chinese factories, from industrial chemicals to… Mystical crystals and dedicated Pilates reformers. It appears that the application offerings now also extend to drone jammers and other drone-related devices with obvious military and security applications.
In recent months, TikTok has become an unlikely showcase for Drone economics Which fuels conflicts such as Russia’s war in Ukraine. Eager to reach customers however small they can Chinese drone manufacturers They are overt broadcast tools of modern warfare, including anti-drone guns, jammers, and sensors, but they bring the breezy rhythm of consumer lifestyle advertising to them. The result is a surreal combination of e-commerce and battlefield combat.
WIRED reviewed dozens of videos from TikTok accounts claiming to sell different types of anti-drone equipment, including products that look like a glue drop-shaped dome on a tripod, a massive, boxy “jamming gun,” and a backpack with 12 antennas. Captions on videos are often in Chinese and English, but others also include subtitles in Russian, Ukrainian, or other languages. One video set to bouncy house music showcases what the user described as a “9-band anti-drone FPV jammer,” a device used to disrupt and block the radio and navigation signals that small drones use to communicate.
Drone dependencies
Both Russia and Ukraine have raced to expand Domestic drone production And strengthen their defenses against drone attacks. But much of this manufacturing still depends on it Chinese components. Processors, sensors, speed controllers, cameras and radio modules on both sides of the war are largely sourced from the same clusters of factories in and around Shenzhen, China’s hardware manufacturing capital.
“Although Kiev has tried to diversify away from Chinese sourcing, Ukraine still relies heavily on major Chinese companies for cheap drones and drone parts,” says Osheng Postaszyri, a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who focuses on emerging technology and national security.
Beijing restricts exports of technologies that have both civilian and military purposes, including drones and related components, and has repeatedly tightened these rules since the war in Ukraine began in early 2022. In September 2024, China decided Expand controls To cover the main parts needed to make drones on the battlefield, such as flight controllers and engines. At about the same time, the U.S. Gov Announce It has imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies for allegedly selling drone parts to Russia.
Despite the restrictions, trade figures indicate that Chinese drones have continued to flow into Russia and Ukraine through intermediaries, Postaszer says. In the first half of 2024, Chinese companies officially sold drones worth only about $200,000 to Kiev. But the Ukrainian government puts estimates much higher – closer to $1.1 billion. “This gap indicates that Chinese drones and fully assembled drone components may enter Ukraine via external vendors,” he explains.
Jamming
Hoping Herbert Song, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland who has researched anti-drone technology, tells WIRED that the products shown in the TikTok videos appear to be a combination of detection equipment and jamming equipment, which distort the signals that drones use to operate.
Drones typically use radio waves to communicate with the remote operator. Some jammers work by Transmitting radio waves With the same frequency that the drone uses to operate, which may cause the drone to stop He loses Contact his operator and make him unresponsive. However, if the drone can still connect to a navigation system, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), Some drones They can land on their own or return to the starting point. Other jammers attempt to interfere with, or “spoof,” the GPS signals that drones use to navigate. deception Drone to think elsewhere.