[Goose]

Article about Russian jamming. Much here has been discussed previously, but aircraft dropped SDBs being sent to Ukraine (and performing much better than the derivative ground launched SDBs) is interesting and newly disclosed.

Also new I think is Ukraine asking for M26 cluster rounds for HIMARS, an older round with less range and accuracy being remanufactured for the GLSDB.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/202...s-ukraine/

Great article! Interesting that there appears to have been a software fix for the JDAM that helps a lot. It is very probable that many of our GPS guided weapons have unexpected/undocumented assumptions baked into their software. When these weapons are not jammed, they work fine. It may even be true that they work fine in the presence of jamming that does not cause these particular assumption(s) to be false. If the "right kind" of jamming is used however, they "go stupid". Also from the article:

In interviews, Ukrainian officials described an overly bureaucratic process that they said had complicated a path toward urgently needed adjustments to improve the failing weaponry.

countered by

The U.S. defense official rejected claims that bureaucracy has slowed the response. The Pentagon and weapons manufacturers have provided solutions sometimes within hours or days, the official said, but did not provide examples.

I believe the Ukrainians. U.S. defense officials are experts at CYA and denying a problem exists. These officials probably aren't exactly lying. They never actually looked for a problem and probably wouldn't understand it if they saw it. Not their job. They know of no problems. One only needs a cursory look at the last 25 years or so of such pronouncements to seriously doubt their accuracy. I am sure there are success stories. I strongly suspect there are many more failures than successes.

The SDB working better than the GLSDB is indeed a bit of a mystery. As I understood it the GLSDBs we were providing to Ukraine were to be launched from their own single-round launchers, not HIMARS. That was one of their big advantages. The initial failure reports seemed to be saying that mud was interfering with the launcher. That doesn't sound like HIMARS launchers. The SDB has the advantage that it doesn't undergo anywhere near the G load and acceleration that a rocket propelled  GLSDB does. That may cause the INS to be less accurate. If the GPS is working, that shouldn't matter much. If it is being jammed, then it very well could.

One last quote from the article that IMO is the most important point of this whole piece:

The Ukrainian officials said they expect that weapons effective on the battlefield now will similarly slump within a year.
“The Russians will learn how to fight it,” the second Ukrainian official said. “That’s how the arms race works.”

Indeed! This is why it is CRITICAL to move at the speed of war and destroy the enemy before he has the opportunity to "lean how to fight it". We keep giving the Russians time, and doing that can very well defeat Ukraine. We inoculate them to the disease without delivering a fatal dose. That happens over and over.

Ukraine likes cluster munitions because they don't require perfect accuracy. It would be very nice if the US finally realized the obvious and started manufacturing these weapons again. Yes, duds are dangerous to civilians both during and after the war. They are also dangerous to friendly troops crossing an area hit by cluster munitions. OTOH, that means said troops are advancing, and that is what is required to win. I seriously doubt this will happen, but it still would be IMO a very "good" thing if it did.

[Goose]

Article about Russian jamming. Much here has been discussed previously, but aircraft dropped SDBs being sent to Ukraine (and performing much better than the derivative ground launched SDBs) is interesting and newly disclosed.

Also new I think is Ukraine asking for M26 cluster rounds for HIMARS, an older round with less range and accuracy being remanufactured for the GLSDB.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/202...s-ukraine/

Great article! Interesting that there appears to have been a software fix for the JDAM that helps a lot. It is very probable that many of our GPS guided weapons have unexpected/undocumented assumptions baked into their software. When these weapons are not jammed, they work fine. It may even be true that they work fine in the presence of jamming that does not cause these particular assumption(s) to be false. If the "right kind" of jamming is used however, they "go stupid". Also from the article:

In interviews, Ukrainian officials described an overly bureaucratic process that they said had complicated a path toward urgently needed adjustments to improve the failing weaponry.

countered by

The U.S. defense official rejected claims that bureaucracy has slowed the response. The Pentagon and weapons manufacturers have provided solutions sometimes within hours or days, the official said, but did not provide examples.

I believe the Ukrainians. U.S. defense officials are experts at CYA and denying a problem exists. These officials probably aren't exactly lying. They never actually looked for a problem and probably wouldn't understand it if they saw it. Not their job. They know of no problems. One only needs a cursory look at the last 25 years or so of such pronouncements to seriously doubt their accuracy. I am sure there are success stories. I strongly suspect there are many more failures than successes.

The SDB working better than the GLSDB is indeed a bit of a mystery. As I understood it the GLSDBs we were providing to Ukraine were to be launched from their own single-round launchers, not HIMARS. That was one of their big advantages. The initial failure reports seemed to be saying that mud was interfering with the launcher. That doesn't sound like HIMARS launchers. The SDB has the advantage that it doesn't undergo anywhere near the G load and acceleration that a rocket propelled  GLSDB does. That may cause the INS to be less accurate. If the GPS is working, that shouldn't matter much. If it is being jammed, then it very well could.

One last quote from the article that IMO is the most important point of this whole piece:

The Ukrainian officials said they expect that weapons effective on the battlefield now will similarly slump within a year.
“The Russians will learn how to fight it,” the second Ukrainian official said. “That’s how the arms race works.”

Indeed! This is why it is CRITICAL to move at the speed of war and destroy the enemy before he has the opportunity to "lean how to fight it". We keep giving the Russians time, and doing that can very well defeat Ukraine. We inoculate them to the disease without delivering a fatal dose. That happens over and over.

Ukraine likes cluster munitions because they don't require perfect accuracy. It would be very nice if the US finally realized the obvious and started manufacturing these weapons again. Yes, duds are dangerous to civilians both during and after the war. They are also dangerous to friendly troops crossing an area hit by cluster munitions. OTOH, that means said troops are advancing, and that is what is required to win. I seriously doubt this will happen, but it still would be IMO a very "good" thing if it did.