I think these weapons demonstrated their effectiveness agains adversary who were outmathced by the western armies and who had almoast no capabilities to respond. When tested against a similar powerful adversary, their problems were revealed

This was mentioned the very first time I read about JDAM, years ago. It's just a cheap alternative for the places where you can get away with it. I have no clue how anyone thought Ukraine was such a place as it was well known that Syria, during the time Russia was supporting Assad, was the most heavily jammed place on earth. Something even the crews of electronic warfare planes were complaining about.

Thank you for the objective reporting - largely missing in this war in mainstream media.

This is a level of honesty that I usually don't expect of Americans. Actual self-criticism, looking for where they went wrong and looking for a way to improve. They had lost this a time ago. 👏👏

Jamming isn’t the problem. JDAM, GMLRS, Storm Shadow, etc all have GPS and inertial guidance. If they lose the GPS they switch to the inertial. It’s not as accurate but it will still get the weapon close to the target. The real problem here is GPS spoofing so that the weapons think they are somewhere else and don’t switch over to inertial.

Oh, really? GPS signals are being jammed on the battle field? Who coulf have possibly seen that coming?

I remember discussing with someone on SM about TopGun Maverick, on how it was a forced situation to create an action sequence. I had mentioned that the situation, though tailor made for the exact movie sequence to happen, wasn't ridiculous. This video confirms it.

The guidance package is supposed to automatically switch to the Inertial Guidance System, when the GPS is lost. The IGS is constantly updated while the GPS is working. So, even when GPS is lost, the IGS will still maintain acceptable accuracy. The malfunction must be more basic than just the loss of the GPS.

Finally, someone is admitting to something Russia does well

I think the issues are a combination of everything you mentioned. Especially the part about Ukranian aircraft flying too low to the ground for the bombs to be employed effectively.

So i have no clue how any of this really works. Are signal/frequency jammers areal or directional? (i would assume the former, but sometimes it sounds like it would be directional when talked about jamming a certain plane or ship) Do they usually jam just one specific frequency, a spectrum of frequencies or just any and all or would they leave out one so their own gear still could communicate on that one? Are there alternative ways these 'not so much anymore' guided weapons could to instead of GPS, like it was programmed before in and before the jammed area was encountered data for orientation was given and due to how fast and direction the plain goes, a computer still could keep track in an coordinat system overlay?

1:24 - you forgot one component, arguably most important: INS. Internal Navigation System that can't be jammed and supplements GPS with far more frequent readings that GPS can provide. There are also datalinks and on some variants, terminal cheap laser guidance. Also Jamming (effectively blinding through noise, denying access to signal) is very different than spoofing (sending slightly altered, faked signal). Also: remember, that US has 'geofenced' some provided weapons to restrict them to Ukrainian territory and such patch might have adverse effect.

„Krasukha“ rus for Belladonna nightshade, a delirium where you lose touch with reality when ingested

I think it is very simple. The aircrafts navigation system is jammed. This is used to initialize the JDAM. The missile will then be way of in the beginning and has not enough time to correct that initial errorm

What?......the friggin US military never figured the enemy would jam their guidance???? That's insane.

I think one issue may be a lack of training with this type of munition. I often see US pilots using a lob maneuver to release these types of munitions as well as laser guided munitions (going back to the gulf war). This allows them to release the weapon from farther away, as well as approach from a lower altitude if needed before popping up a steep angle, gaining altitude and speed before releasing the weapon in the direction of the target. If they are just running in low and then gaining minimal altitude and releasing as if it were a normal bomb then the secondary targeting is not getting the time to come into play.

There are multiple satellite navigation systems up there and there are receivers that can use multiple systems at the same time. Match the location information across the different systems and only switch when you cant get matching position info, or throw out one of the three mismatched before switching to INS.

Yeah, right. This guy has such detailed information on what is working and not in Ukraine. Misinformation is a also a guided bomb.

The news I've seen largely credit the HIMARS launched missiles as being quite successful. I've also heard of some success with the Excalibur 155mm smart munition. However, I've heard very, very little about success with two other systems - the JDAM/JDAM-ER and the Switchblade 300/600 loitering munitions. The Switchblade is manually guided using video feedback to an operator and was advertised as being 'jam resistant'. I assume that GPS signal jamming may also be expanded (different frequencies) to include jamming of video and/or guidance signals.

🛰🔍 It's fascinating to delve into the complexities of modern warfare technology and the vulnerabilities it may face. While guided weapons have advanced systems like GPS and inertial guidance, the potential threat of GPS spoofing raises intriguing questions. Ensuring the security of these systems becomes crucial to maintain accuracy and effectiveness. Exploring countermeasures and addressing vulnerabilities will be vital for future advancements in warfare technology. The evolving landscape of warfare technology continues to captivate and challenge us. 💥🔒🌐

My first question would be, "what recent reports?" I can confirm that Russians do jam GPS. We were in the process of mapping for a Ukrainian archaeological project using GPS, and a ground station for post-processing. Certain areas around the project could not be mapped using GPS at all. The result was that we had to employ a total station and blend the data in a desktop mapping program. Even with the base station, correcting the GPS data was unusable in certain parts of the project area.

And some of the weapons are equipped with a home on jam system and when being jammed automatically switch to it and home in on the jamming system.

I think the the Jdam could be used as good to way to target the jamming with radar seeking missiles. Send 1 j dam and 5, 6 radar seeking missiles when Russian turn on jammers. That solve the Jamming and finding the jammer for destruction.

The US military think-tank should therefore employ offline guidance systems for its JDAMs that immediately switch to inertial when it encounters a jamming signal. The bomb therefore will have in its memory the last possible location of its target and head for that location using its internal mapping system, even without the use of GPS. Of course if the target moves, the bomb will have no way of having an accurate hit but it may get close enough to made a difference.

Switch over to The Storm Shadow cruise missiles for a higher success ratio and take out the jammers.

People who know stuff - how can the jamming be countered, if at all? Can the jamming vehicles be located from a distance in any way?

So can radar/radio seeking sensors be added to HIMARS rockets? Fire a volley, first few take out the jammers, and the rest find their other intended targets?

If nothing else, this is a fantastic real life weapon efficiency appraisal against a matched opponent.

Pair JDAMs with HARM missils, if they turn on a jammer you get to hit the jammer if they don't the JDAM will hit its target, sooner or later they will run out of jamming equipment.

What if it's not jamming but a projection issue? Maybe they use a us centric srid projection which error margins are amplified at different latitudes. Some projections are very precise in the Nordic countries and are used in the oil industry, these very same projections are relatively inaccurate when used closer to the equator.

Time for a GLONASS kit option? Can HAARMs be set to attack GPS jammers?

Even with inertial guidance, doesn't the bomb need to know where it's released from the plane? i.e. - if Russians start jamming GPS, then the fighter jet that drops the bomb isn't too sure where it is either - so how can it tell the bomb exactly where to go?

While jamming can pose challenges, it's important to note that modern guided weapons like JDAM, GMLRS, and Storm Shadow have built-in GPS and inertial guidance systems. Even if GPS is lost, they can rely on inertial guidance to maintain accuracy. However, the real concern lies in GPS spoofing, where the weapons are tricked into believing they are somewhere else, hindering the switch to inertial guidance. This raises intriguing questions about the vulnerabilities and countermeasures of modern warfare technology. 🌐🚀🔒

A directional gos antenna should be aiming up the sky installed at the back of the device to strength immunity on jamming.

Question: wouldn't the jammer not also make themselves vulnerable to signal tracing munitions?

Has anyone given thought of piggybacking the GLONASS system as a backup for the GPS? Or even the PRC GPS system? I'm just asking since even my Android cellphone can use GPS, or GLONASS, or other Global Positioning System networks for navigation. I would think it would be a prudent failsafe...

With the number of SAM systems, neither side seems to be doing much, if any high flying over the other's territory. So I can't imagine there's much use for this type of bomb at this moment anyway.

Hi i have a question Are JDAM bombs effective only with fixed targets ? thanks

I've always though GPS was desined to operate in two modes: open documented civilian mode and classified military mode. Is it so ?

The question to asked is how are the Russians receiving their sat signals within the same area of operation as the GPS sat signal. The noise and other jamming techniques are extremely targeted to more than the rf signal itself. Second they seem to be using large LF arrays as well as phased arrays at higher GPS signals so the jamming may be a directed rf signal on the battlefield with a wide array noise floor using harmonics. More advanced jamming techniques can not be discussed on this forum.

don't JDAMs have INS guidance as well? I know HIMARS does

Can it be possible to use laser designation from small drones ?

Downloaded the latest GPS mapping in the JDAM needs to be updated before the flight and after the pilot enters the GPS into the JDAM, even while jammed by Russia or whoever, the JDAM should hit within the 90 feet coordinates.

Are there JDAMs coming in June? I thought I heard that safety testing of the stockpile is what is taking a while to supply them to Ukraine...

Would this explain why I set my car satnav to take me to Glasgow last week and ended up in Kyiv.

Why not add terminal image recognition guidance so you home on the target and initial guidance only has to get you close.

The GPS signal is actually very weak near the ground and can be further down degraded . Inertial navigation cannot be so qffected but it is much more complicated to handle

Just set up decoy transmitters for anti radiation missile mitigation. As for GPS, radio jamming or amplify GPS satelite signals from a dummy satelite.

So basically, long story short, you don't know if they are working or aren't working. And if they aren't working, you don't know why they aren't working. Also, you have no idea if whatever is not working, can be fixed.

I wonder how wide spread this really is. I suspect it's not as wide spread as this video implies. I still see very accurate GMLRS/HIMARS strikes videos

Could Hedy Lamarr`s (Hedy Kiesler Markey) spread spectrum switching invention (U.S. Patent 2,292,387) help?

Everything has strengths and weakness.

Excellent video 📹 Fighting Russia 🇷🇺 is not the same as fighting Iraq.

It's interesting that Excalibur artillery rounds, which are also GPS guided, don't seem to be having the same problems.

guess they will have to deliver them the old way, via A-6, and the Mk.1 eyeball

JDAMS needs to be able to detect if jamming or spoofing is going on and switch to attack the source of the counterfeit signal.

An issue with Ukrainians deploying JDAMs from MiG-29s and Su-24s is that their electronics are probably not compatible with the weapons they are deploying. The HARMs look like they were being controlled by a tablet and not the mission computer of the aircraft. The JDAM can be programmed on the ground or dynamically in the air. The ability to assign targets in the air is more effective than pre-programming them on the ground. The Russian tactics are similar to those used during the Yom Kippur War by Egypt and the Iran/Iraq War. Basically, you establish an air defense umbrella over your lines with low-altitude radar-guided AA guns, IR MANPADs, and medium/high altitude SAMs. Bring up your artillery to saturate your enemy's lines with shell fire and then conduct bite and hold offensives underneath that umbrella trying to lure your enemy into counterattacks. The problem for the Ukrainians is interdicting Russian supply lines in their rear areas to break up attacks because they are lacking air-support and guided medium-range tactical missiles. Normally SEAD missions target enemy air defenses to prepare for air attacks on logistics hubs but a lack of Ukrainian airpower makes that difficult. Also sending elephants to hunt elephant guns isn't a great strategy unless you are conducting deep strike operations. Another way to neutralize enemy air defenses is to use attack helicopters to sneak in under enemy radars and then destroy SAM sites with IR or laser-guided missiles like in the 1st Gulf War. But that would leave Ukrainian attack helicopters vulnerable to AA guns, MANPADs, and SAMs. The Israelis suffered heavy losses during the Yom Kippur War due to Egyptian IAD systems but when the Egyptians tried to advance beyond their IAD umbrella they suffered heavy losses to Israeli air power. An interesting thing the Israelis did to counter Arab IAD during the Lebanon War was to mount Standard ARM missiles on ground launchers which could be brought up to the front lines under the enemy IAD umbrella to destroy SAM sites. The Israelis would send over reconnaissance drones to get their enemies to turn on their radars and once illuminated fire their anti-radiation missiles. Since the Standard ARMs were only a short distance from the SAM sites they could often destroy them before they had a chance to launch. Once gaps had been opened in the air defense umbrella strike aircraft and helicopters could then attack enemy defense lines. This option of sneaking up underneath an enemy IAD umbrella could become more important in the future when facing the newest generation of Russian and Chinese air defenses due to their long range. I would hope that Western companies would develop anti-radiation missiles which could be launched from ground-launched MLRS to take out enemy IAD radars, artillery fire detection/direction radars, and enemy communications towers. If the Ukrainians had ground-launched anti-radiation missiles they could punch holes in the Russian air defense umbrella. But with insufficient numbers of attack helicopters, attack aircraft, and medium-range guided missiles NATO is allowing the Russians to bleed the Ukrainians white. In an age where everyone has access to a cellphone that means battlefield communications have become decentralized. That means there are a lot of radio frequency signals generated by your enemy. Since these signals are cheap and ubiquitous anti-radiation missiles need to become cheap and ubiquitous to deprive your enemy of their detection and communications infrastructure. While it may not be practical to target every cellphone with SIGINT you can collate the signals and give priority to higher-value targets. For instance, if you can collate the signals and see that enemy officers are issued satellite phones you can target those signals and kill off your enemy's leadership.

"meeg 29" made me chuckle

The US updated their JADAM more than 10 years back to have higher gain antennas to lower this issue but it seems the Russians are deploying much stronger signal maybe dorectional signals too to sort out this issue.

So the obvious question is can the GPS receivers be hardened against jamming. If not, GPS guidance will be worthless against any sophisticated enemy. The next question is whether Russian jammers can be destroyed by anti-radar type missiles. They would seem like obvious targets and can't turn their emitters off in order to work.

Shouldn't JDAM GPS systems be using semidirectional antennas that only receive from above? That should make ground based jammers less effective. Granted it also means you can't use the WAIS signals, but you can't have everything.

So what has the highest probability given the available information; incopompatence on the part of the operator or advanced jamming technology in relation to the decades old rerrofited dumb bombs.

I'm pretty sure there are options to counter the jamming like the use of different GPS (GLONASS/Chinas, whatever it is called) at the same time, preprogrammend terrain mapping, anti-jammer etc. but then a JDAM system wouldn't cost 30k but like 200k per bomb. War on the long run is already expensive af. It's always about the cost-benefit efficacy.

That is a benefit in supplying weapons to Ukraine. You find out the weakness of your weapons in actual combat without having to get blood on your hands and doing harm to yourself. Invaluable research. But since other guided weapons seem to be very successful, it could be that the range tests were faked by the manufacturer. It wouldn't be the 1st time.

That's why need to add AI day/night terrain mapping navigation and target acquisition guidance systems to them in an upgraded add-on package. That combined with their inertia guidance system, should be sufficient for them to function effectively without a GPS signal. Add military grade shielding around the electronics. Problem solved, mission accomplished. Then they can simply disable GPS navigation and pre-program GPS starting coordinates from well known launch points, within controlled airspace.

On DCS my jdams kept missing too! Can't remember how I solved it but was something... Resorted to laser guided lased at last 10secs worked everytime

30 years ago I worked on shall we say things which would track and log the position of radio and radar systems even if the transmitters were switched off the missiles would still continue on target short of running away was your only hope of staying alive why not use these weapons first then gps bombs?

It would be interesting if they could setup a system like counter artillery to localize the jamming location and then hit it. Not sure if it's possible to program in an exact location in a HIMARS rocket or perhaps Storm Shadows and fly to that location under strictly initertial navigation.

GPS is pretty vulnerable due to weak signal strength

The problem isn't simply that the GPS signal is drowned out by noise produced by jammers, the signal can also be replaced by a fake signal that is not recognized as such by the JDAM. The inertial navigation then does not take over as long as there is no red flag in the form of a sudden jump in the difference between the position according to the inertial navigation and the GPS. If the fake GPS signal then causes a gradual drift between GPS and inertial navigation, then the system will flag that as being a gradual drift in the inertial navigation, and the system is programmed to reset the inertial navigation to the GPS.

The best military analysis available is right here.

Exactly, the problem here is two fold. GPS spoofing and flying at low altitudes to avoid Anti air missiles. There's significant video evidence out of Ukrainian tactics used to strike ground targets from the air, including an interview with a Ukrainian "ace" pilot who goes into detail about flying low to score the amount of ground kills he's praised for.

JDAM’s are very useful if the launch platform is configured to be a strike platform A strike fighter would have self protection jammer , targeting pod , EW suite , chaffs and flares couple with MAWs LWR and RWR etc I don’t think Ukrainian Mig-29 has all these and that’s why they are asking for F-16 But my thought is Ukraine should get SAAB Gripen jets instead because I don’t think Ukraine will get the most advanced f-16 V viper variant

Ad Glonar and other Position determining information system to GPS and you have a redundant orientation system. There will always be a reason why even Glonar cannot be switched off in a timely manner or kept off all the time. Jammers need lots of energy- in combat field position. How long can they maintain jamming without hindering themselves ? Use swarms of cheap drones with visual landmark recognition and or saturation tactics like Shaed was used

the former easily explained is that they skew the frequency so the frequency is correct for the robot but the position is incorrect on impact

What's Amazing is how westerners are pushing Ukraine to a certain death by convincing them the journey gonna be a nice ride 😂😂

The JDAM bomb developers then should employ a system that utilizes some internal mapping in its computers to guide the bomb towards its target even without GPS. The bomb should be able to switch to inertial guidance (INS) when it encounters a jamming signal and not be tricked by it or maybe the bomb can go after the signal of the jammer's location instead. If the target is moving then maybe using a laser beam or some sort of infrared targeting device to guide the bomb as an alternative may be an option, if a ground unit (even a UAV drone) could assist in the targeting mode, albeit risky.

Why don't they modify them so that when they get within a certain distance from the target it switches to laser or IR guidance?

I thought the Russians were cannibalizing captured Ukrainian washing machines for their electronic circuits. I guess, you can do a lot a stuff with these high tech washing machines.

Am sure the Chinese are keeping an eye on this, while getting ready for the Taiwan campaign.

Can a Caesar canon be gps jammed ? I suspect they use gps to aim.

They need to make a projectile that is multi functional in that it homes in on the jamming system once it is jammed and ignore the original target. Also, recon drones that are 'buzzed' by Russian or Chinese aircraft at close dangerous range activate a self destruct bomb and takes out the offending aircraft.

A raid needs arranging in order to capture a couple of these jammers, find out how they work, and invent a jamming system that interferes with their operating system. I'm sure the Ukrainians have the means to carry out such an attack. SLAVA UKRAINE 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇬🇧

4 days after this video it was announced that JDAMS will be delivered to Ukraine. It is very hard for JDAMS to fail before even being used. Maybe, just maybe.

Wouldn’t the jammers/ gps spoofing machines be vulnerable to a anti radiation missile?

Wasn't the JDAMs have a Laser Guidance Kit as LJDAMs, where it uses a Laser Designator instead of relying too much on GPS Guidance?

Russia is a world leader in electronic weapons, it has one that would disconnect all of Europe from satellite and GPS communications. 👍 Go Russia 🇷🇺

I love how the f-35 is attacking that Sherman easy 8

Just today there was a new vid of jdam use. I wonder if the US solved this problem quickly?

Switch the JDAM to GLONAS?

Russia has had over 20 years to prepare defensive systems against US and western offensive weapon systems. Also as pointed out below on other comments Ukrainian aircraft electronics are not up to snuff on advanced systems, their ability make due with what they have is admirable to impressive at times but in this case duct tape and ipads won't cut it which is probably why they are clamoring for western attack aircraft as their fighters are outdated. But I still think American pilots would still have their hands full even with the most modern aircraft and competent pilots. But we would still prevail should we take them on until the nukes start flying then it's over for everyone.

Excellent reporting.

I'd think there would be an option to lock onto the jamming system and simply eliminate it as an alternative target.

They need to change the software so that if there is a significant difference between the inertial guidance position and the GPS position due to spoofing then just drop the GPS guidance

I think the problem is unfamiliarity with a new weapon system as evidenced by the problem mentioned with fusing. The additional speculation concerning employment of the weapons by pilots is also likely a contributing cause for some failures.

there only one thing to do - stop to relying on radio signal , reconnaissance drones might flying using preprogrammed scenario, and also optical diapason could be used. Relying on radio signal in such circumstances would only cause disruption the more would be alternatives and the more diverse the better. I guess missiles guided by wire/optic fiber were demoted to early and too rashly. And precision of navigating system should be improving as well , it is not too shabby to heat precisely that spot , radio jamming in the world would became worse and worse with each day . I guess it is better to be prepared and not relying on those things all along. I guess there might be some symbiosis of AI(recognizing terrain) , measuring speed of wind, positions of star , sound(some little devises could cause it), positions of stars , moon , sun , ...

JDAMs are from the nineties, to say they are precision guided bombs is a stretch. Modern systems are far less reliant on GPS for their precision. Hey I guess if Russia can use T-55 tanks that date back to the 1950's we can repurpose 30 year old bombs.

This video is awesome. I love the honesty of what's happening for once. Too many creators are minimizing Ukraine losses, and they're not being truth-full to their audience.

The problem is by the time Ukraine can actually use a JDAM under the right conditions, the target has likely moved or bugged out.

Very good that the Russians are adapting quickly to these and overcoming enemy weapon systems