The occupation army of the Russian Federation managed to reduce the efficiency and accuracy of the use of some samples of weapons received by the Ukrainian military from the United States.
Russian army reduced the effectiveness of Western weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine
Journalists of the publication, referring to two non-public reports, note that the US high-precision projectiles initially demonstrated high efficiency, but this began to decrease as the Russian invaders strengthened their defences.
Because of this, the Ukrainian military was forced to abandon the use of some American weapons.
The first claims of a reduction in the effectiveness of American weapons concerned the Excalibur 155 mm guided artillery shells and small-diameter ground-based bombs (GLSDB).
The report notes that Ukraine has become a testing ground for high-precision American weapons that have not been used before against such a complex enemy as Russia.
The effectiveness of American and Russian weapons, both defensive and offensive, is closely monitored by the Pentagon and NATO, as well as Russia and China, with significant implications for future weapons.
According to the commanders of Ukrainian units, probably some of the weapons received from Western partners lost their effectiveness, and this cost the lives of Ukrainian defenders.
In particular, the Russian Federation's occupation army deployed EW systems around stationary targets, including headquarters and command centres.
The systems create so much interference that they drown out the GPS signal that drives Excalibur's targeting software, explains Thomas Whittington, a researcher at the Royal Joint Services Institute in London and an electronic warfare expert.
The reports confirm, referring to the comments of the Ukrainian military and the former AFU Commander-in-Chief, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, that some Western projectiles ensured the superiority of the Armed Forces only for a limited period.
Zaluzhnyi noted that the Excalibur munition is a vivid example, as it uses a GPS signal vulnerable to Russian interference.
A similar situation exists with a joint suite of direct attack munitions called JDAM and projectiles used with HIMARS, which also use GPS signals.
GLSDB high-precision munitions with a longer range are produced jointly by Boeing and the Swedish company Saab. They were also hampered by Russian electronic warfare.
What does the Pentagon comment on?
According to the representative of the US Ministry of Defense press service, Ukraine has received more than 7,000 high-precision 155 mm projectiles since February 2022.
We are well aware of the threat of electronic warfare that Russia is creating in Ukraine, and that this threat is constantly evolving. As a result, we are working closely with Ukraine, along with defense industry partners, to continuously assess and provide rapid solutions to these threats, and to help Ukraine remain effective in a highly complex EW environment. This includes the ability to deliver high-precision munitions to the battlefield, the official said.
Currently, research is being conducted in Ukraine due to the problem of the accuracy of Western ammunition being decreased.
The researchers collected data on the use of nearly 3,000 Excalibur shells that were fired from December 2022 to August 2023 from US-supplied M777 howitzers on the front lines in Kherson, Kharkiv and Bakhmut.
The prepared reports noted that the proportion of confirmed successful strikes fell between January and August 2023, from a high of 55% to a low of 7% in July and 6% in August.
One of the publication's interlocutors noted that there was a moment when only one of the 19 Excalibur shells could hit the target.
According to the report, the price of a successful hit increased to $1.9 million in August 2023 from $300,000 in January of the previous year.
Commanders of Ukrainian artillery units confirmed that Excalibur shells when first launched in 2022, proved very accurate in hitting targets.
How to overcome the EW of the occupying army of the Russian Federation
Western analysts point out that the most effective option for fighting against enemy air defence systems is their direct destruction.
The Armed Forces focused on strikes against stationary Russian radars and other equipment to create obstacles, in particular, on the territory of occupied Crimea.
At closer range, the Russian and Ukrainian militaries use mobile EW to repel drones that use GPS to target.
However, RAND engineer Michael Bohnert said Russian methods of jamming radio-electronic signals are far from perfect.
Countermeasures can include simple techniques such as changing the time and location from which the munitions are launched.
Navigation systems that rely on lasers or terrain maps avoid the problem of GPS interference.
Western vendors have also developed software patches for some shells to improve durability.
Bohnert noted that Excalibur was developed in the 1990s, when GPS was in its infancy and electronic warfare technology was not as sophisticated as it is today.
Daniel Patt, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, warned that the Excalibur experience in Ukraine is an example of how a lack of software adaptability can limit the best weapons systems.
The life cycle of a radio in Ukraine is only about three months before it needs to be reprogrammed or replaced as the Russians optimize their electronic warfare against it. The peak effectiveness of a new weapon system is reached only about two weeks before the countermeasures appear, Patt emphasises.
