A new wave of Ukrainian long-range attack drones, launched on August 21, targeted the center of signal intelligence near Moscow. Kyrylo Budanov, the Chief of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, said, in order to make the strike successful, they even diverted the russian forces' attention with a decoy attack on the Ostafyevo airfield.
Budanov did not specify the name of the real target in question, he only mentioned it's located approximately 8 km south of this airfield. Here it might seem this much information is enough to identify the object, however, Defense Express notes that this is not the case.
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After all, the outskirts of Moscow are really jammed with all kinds of military facilities. In the specified area only, there is the headquarters of the russian Foreign Intelligence Service, two signal monitoring centers of the GRU, two more under the FSB, the main reception center of the russian General Staff, one of the key communication centers of the russian Navy, positions of Moscow's A-135 anti-ballistic missile system, several S-400 air defense deployment sites, and the command post of the 5th Air Defense Division.
All these are situated within a radius of about 20 km from the Ostafyevo airfield. But only one radio wave surveillance center is located to the south of it and is directly related to signal intelligence of the russian federation, though, not eight but 16 kilometers from the airfield. That said, if we stretch the ruler between the closest points of the air base and this facility, it'll show a distance of 13 km, or 8 miles — this may explain the potential error because the information was provided to an American news outlet.
This intelligence center is designated as military unit 34608 near Klimovsk, other names are the 309th TsRPU or Gudok. It belongs to the sixth department (Special Purpose SIGINT) of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the russian Armed Forces, widely known as the GRU.
Furthermore, this facility is central to the Krug system, the one created for tracking enemy strategic and reconnaissance aircraft mid-flight. The deployment of this system began back in the 1950s, it used to consist of two dozen main centers and many more local offshoots, all designed to intercept the signals coming from hostile aircraft. Considering its setting, Gudok became the centerpiece of this system where all the information flowed in, was collected and processed.
Given its status as the centerpiece, it was actively developed throughout its existence and quite expectedly received new functionality. Below is the breakdown of separated locations that constitute the military unit 34608.
The fields with direction-finding antennas of the Krug system are marked in red. Blue highlights another antenna field with various and rather unorthodox structures, possibly related to tropospheric or ionospheric communication.
Yellow marks a newer complex with a large number of satellite communication antennas, which was significantly developed between 2005 and 2011. Not as actively, the retrofitting continued after that, too.
Additionally, photos of this center from the ground reveal quite distinct-looking space antennas. Possibly, these are one of the elements of another russian signal intelligence system, the Zvezda, this one belongs to GRU's Special Purpose SIGINT as well.
Worth noting, the military facilities of this purpose have been attacked by Ukraine previously, in particular, in July 2024, unofficial sources in russia claimed an attack was carried out against one of the Zvezda system centers near the Moskovske village in Izobilnensky District, Stavropol Krai.
In summary, we can confidently assert that the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine is actively and consistently taking down the strategic early warning and signal intelligence systems of the russian federation.
To add context, we should also recall the strikes in the russian-occupied Crimea: on the space communication centers in Alushta and the center of long-distance space communication in Yevpatoria. Add the already mentioned attack on the Zvezda system, and the prior destruction of two Voronezh-DM over-the-horizon radars at once near Armavir, as well as the attack on the unique 29B6 Container radar. These are just the ones known publicly.
Now back to the present time, if the attack of military unit 34608 near Moscow is successful, this will speak not only of the big problems for russia from a strategic perspective but also of some truly unique capabilities of Ukrainian long-range drones. Not every suicide vehicle can boast being able to land a hit on a target that is covered by russia's best air defense equipment.
Read more: What Makes the 29B6 Container Radar System So Special, Which Has Been Attacked by Ukrainian UAVs for the Second Time?
