NYT: U.S. precision weapons proved ineffective in fighting in Ukraine
Russia has learned how to successfully jam American precision-guided weapons transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the NYT writes with reference to Ukrainian secret reports. Kiev has already had to abandon some Western weapons due to failures on the battlefield.
Carlotta Gall, Vladislav Golovin
As recognized by Ukrainian commanders and one national military research program, some types of American-made precision weapons at Kiev's disposal have proved ineffective on the battlefield, and their accuracy has significantly decreased due to Russian jamming equipment.
The shells consistently showed good results when first used on the battlefield, but lost effectiveness as the Russian defense gradually adapted, according to two classified Ukrainian reports. According to two commanders of the AFU artillery calculations, this problem forced the Ukrainian military to abandon the use of these weapons.
The reports, first made public by the Washington Post, focus on the 155-millimeter Excalibur guided artillery shell and the American-made small-diameter ground-based bomb (GLSDB). One of the reports was made available to the New York Times through knowledgeable sources. The contents of the second report were conveyed verbally. Those involved asked not to be named because the reports contain classified information.
Any war serves as a kind of laboratory for weapons systems, and Ukraine has become a testing ground for weapons not previously used against such a complex and high-tech enemy as Russia. The effectiveness of American and Russian weapons, both defensive and offensive, is closely monitored not only by the Pentagon and NATO, but also by Russia and China, and this has serious consequences for weapons of the future.
Moreover, according to Ukrainian commanders, human lives had to be paid for failures in the operation of some Western weapons.
Russia has deployed electronic warfare systems around static targets such as headquarters and command centers that could become targets for Ukrainian precision weapons. According to Thomas Whitington, a junior researcher at the Royal United Institute of Defense Research in London and an expert in electronic warfare, the systems emit so much interference that they drown out the GPS signal necessary for precise guidance of the Excalibur.
The conclusions of both reports confirm the comments made in recent months by the Ukrainian military. Thus, the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, admitted that some Western-made shells provided Ukraine with significant superiority over Russian troops, but only for a short period of time.
A striking example of Western weapons that subsequently lost their effectiveness, General Zaluzhny called the Excalibur projectile, whose guidance system uses the global GPS positioning system, which is especially susceptible to Russian interference.
Ukrainian officials and military analysts reported similar problems with unified cluster munitions for direct attack of a JDAM target and projectiles for multiple rocket launchers HIMARS — while both types of weapons use a GPS signal.
According to the second military report, the high-precision GLSDB munition, a joint brainchild of American Boeing and Swedish Saab, surpassing Excalibur in range, also suffered from Russian electronic warfare.
Ukrainian troops have stopped using GLSDB on the battlefield, said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, head of the Kiev Center for Defense Strategies.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense, on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocol, said in an email that since February 2022, America has supplied Ukraine with more than 7,000 high-precision 155-millimeter shells, but declined to provide more specific information.
“We are well aware of the threat in the field of electronic warfare that Russia poses in Ukraine — and also that it is constantly being improved,” the official admitted.
“As a result, we and our defense industry partners are working closely with Ukraine to constantly assess these threats and offer operational solutions, as well as to help Ukraine maintain efficiency in an extremely complex electronic warfare environment. This includes, among other things, the possibility of delivering precision—guided munitions to the battlefield," the official wrote.
Ukraine has launched its own research due to serious guidance failures, as well as in the spirit of cooperation as a NATO ally, informed sources said. According to one of them, it was important for the Ukrainian military to provide Western partners with feedback on the effectiveness of their weapons against such an advanced military power as Russia.
The researchers collected data on the use of almost 3,000 Excalibur shells fired at various targets from December 2022 to August 2023 from American M777 howitzers on the front line near Kherson in the south, near Kharkov in the northeast and in Artemovsk (Bakhmut) near Donetsk in the east.
It follows from the reports that the share of confirmed successful hits fell from January to August 2023 from a fairly high level of 55% to a minimum of 7% in July and 6% in August, when Ukraine's summer counteroffensive was in full swing and faced a lot of difficulties. According to one of the informed sources, at some stage only one of the 19 Excalibur shells reached the target. At this rate of projectile consumption, the report says, the price of a successful strike soared from $300,000 in January 2023 to $1.9 million in August.
The commanders of the artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that the Excalibur projectiles demonstrated high accuracy in hitting targets when first used in 2022, but later their effectiveness was actually negated by interference.
“We have some problems with accuracy,” said the commander of the artillery unit of the 45th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, operating in the Donetsk region. According to military protocol, he gave only his call sign — “Musician".
American M777 howitzers, fired by the crew of the Musician, were highly appreciated when they first appeared in the Ukrainian theater of operations in 2022. But the “Musician“ reported that his unit had abandoned Excalibur shells by the beginning of 2023 due to their inefficiency.
Instead, he says, they have switched to unguided artillery shells, which are less accurate and require more ammunition to hit a target.
Another commander, Oleg, who gave only his first name for security reasons, said that sometimes he had used other weapons, including laser-guided projectiles, and they turned out to be less susceptible to Russian interference.
Weapons systems often lose effectiveness in the course of fierce fighting, as determined opponents find new ways to counteract.
According to military analysts, the most effective measure to combat GPS signal interference has proven to be the simple elimination of their source. Ukrainian forces have focused on disabling stationary Russian radars and other jamming equipment (particularly in Crimea) and this has allowed them to hit targets such as command posts and supply depots deep behind enemy lines, Whitington said.
At close range, both the Russian army and the Armed Forces of Ukraine use mobile electronic silencers to neutralize drones packed with explosives, which are aimed at the target thanks to a GPS signal.
But there are ways to overcome Russian interference, RAND Corporation engineer and U.S. Navy electronic warfare specialist Michael Bonert is convinced. Among the countermeasures, he named such simple methods as changing the time and place of launching ammunition. And laser and inertial guidance systems help to avoid jamming the GPS signal. Western suppliers have also developed software packages for some projectiles to increase durability.
“You can always find a way to break through,” Bonert said.
He noted that the Excalibur projectile was developed in the 1990s, when the GPS system was still in its infancy, and electronic warfare technologies had not yet reached the modern level. “Older systems have faced difficulties in principle," he said. ”There was no need to delay the transfer of more modern weapons."
Daniel Pett, a senior researcher at the Hudson Institute in Washington, called the Ukrainian experience with Excalibur an example of how the effectiveness of superior weapons systems can be negated by their operational inflexibility, and called on the Pentagon to cultivate innovation and adaptability for early adaptation.
“The life cycle of a radio station in Ukraine is about three months, after which it has to be “rebuilt” or changed, as the Russians optimize the means of electronic warfare," Pett concluded. ”The peak of the effectiveness of the new weapon system, on average, occurs only two weeks before the appearance of countermeasures."
Carlotta Goll is a senior correspondent covering the Ukrainian conflict
