Russia’s glide bombs were unstoppable – but Ukraine has made them useless

In a azygous week successful September 2024, Russia dropped much than 900 glide bombs on its 800-mile beforehand enactment with Ukraine, according to Ukrainian estimates.

Ukraine was astir powerless to halt the long-range weapons – and the consequences were devastating.

Known arsenic Russia’s “miracle weapon”, glide bombs would routinely beryllium utilized to hitch retired cardinal Ukrainian targets, from logistics bases to service headquarters. Fitted with wings and satellite-aided navigation, each weighed arsenic overmuch arsenic 3 tons.

However, 12 months later, Russia’s glide bombs are efficaciously useless, owing to the abrupt occurrence of Ukrainian vigor jammers.

Fighterbomber, a Telegram transmission tally by an anonymous Russian pilot, said Ukrainian jammers had “saturated the beforehand line”, blocking the glide bombs’ interior navigation systems.

“All satellite-guided correction systems person near the chat,” the aviator said.

Credit: Russian Ministry of Defence

That does not mean Russia has stopped dropping glide bombs. But they are often turned into duds, landing successful fields acold from their intended targets, alternatively than smashing into Ukrainian reserve forces oregon an service division’s headquarters.

Jammers – which tin instrumentality the signifier of idiosyncratic decoys oregon signifier portion of a jet’s wider defence system, arsenic with western-made F16s – artifact force systems by emitting interfering signals.

According to Fighterbomber, it present often takes arsenic galore arsenic 16 glide bombs to deed a azygous target.

Just months ago, Kyiv appeared helpless to halt the bombs. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s erstwhile overseas minister, told the Financial Times astatine the extremity of 2024 that “you cannot jam [glide bombs], you cannot fell from them”.

Mr Withington told The Telegraph the Russian glide bombs “should person been designed and outfitted with a robust planetary navigation system, which receives an encrypted awesome and should beryllium resistant to jamming”.

“To enactment it bluntly, Russian glide bombs should not beryllium getting jammed,” Tom Withington, a weapons adept astatine the Royal United Services Institute deliberation tank, explained.

This means that either the Russian glide bombs were truthful poorly designed that they are susceptible to jamming, oregon Ukraine has recovered ways to flooded protections built into the weapons.

Given that Russia had been successfully utilizing glide bombs for respective months, it is much apt to beryllium the latter.

It is simply a important development, fixed the devastation the bombs were causing arsenic precocious arsenic November, helping Russian troops marque their fastest beforehand since the warfare began. Their caller ineffectiveness whitethorn person contributed towards the information that Russian advances slowed for the 3rd period successful a enactment successful February.

The quality volition situation Donald Trump and JD Vance’s content that Kyiv has nary accidental of pushing Russia backmost oregon maintaining its existent positions.

And the interaction connected the beforehand enactment could beryllium significant, degrading Russia’s quality to onslaught Ukraine astatine its rear, which has been a cardinal portion of the Kremlin’s strategy of attrition.

Before sending successful hordes of soldiers, Russian forces are known for launching aggravated bombardments to weaken Ukrainian positions, creating disorder and inflicting archetypal casualties on the beforehand line.

“Now, Ukraine is preventing Russia from being capable to deed targets reliably down the beforehand line. [Moscow] can’t impact Ukrainian bid and control, oregon disrupt logistics, meaning their forces can’t determination astatine gait and manoeuvre successful a mode they tendency on the battlefield,” Mr Withington explained.

There is interest that Ukraine’s advancement with jamming, and crossed the battlefield, whitethorn beryllium undermined by Mr Trump’s caller determination to intermission each subject assistance and quality for Kyiv.

Europe has vowed to capable the void wherever indispensable but experts person said it volition beryllium hard for Ukraine to transportation connected warring efficaciously beyond this summer, without US support.

But a root told The Telegraph that Ukraine’s European allies person already engaged with physics warfare companies astir whether they mightiness guarantee Kyiv’s jamming capabilities are maintained.

The intermission successful US assistance and quality came amid reports that Ukraine has precocious recovered occurrence on the eastbound front, reclaiming cardinal positions and inflicting “unsustainable losses” connected Russia.

On March 1 alone, Russia is thought to person mislaid 1,340 soldiers to decease oregon injury, according to Ukrainian subject estimates.

Ukrainian forces person precocious against Russian troops adjacent to the large eastbound cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, reclaiming immoderate important positions, according to warfare bloggers.

However, the jamming of glide bombs is not a metallic bullet, nor is it needfully the superior crushed for Russia’s slowing advances oregon Ukraine’s expanding success.

“Any tactical vantage is simply a culmination of a fig of factors… All technological advances similar these are usually temporary,” Mr Withington said.

And it is not lone Ukraine that has had occurrence with weapons-jamming. Ruslan Leviev, a subject expert astatine Conflict Intelligence Team, told The Telegraph that Russian jamming had forced Ukraine to halt utilizing a fig of weapons.

Mr Leviev said: “The interaction of Russian jamming systems has been noted aggregate times successful this war. Because of them, the proviso of high-precision Excalibur artillery shells was halted.” The Excalibur is simply a US-supplied GPS-guided artillery shell.

Ukraine’s expanding occurrence successful jamming, a signifier of physics warfare (EW), is not constricted to glide bombs but besides applies to drones.

Ukraine is progressively capable to intercept Shahed drones and crook them backmost into Russian oregon Belarusian airspace.

Innovations successful Ukraine’s EW interference mean that the bulk of Russian drones are intercepted, lost, oregon turned astray, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based deliberation tank.

Some 38 Russian Shahed drones entered Belarusian airspace connected Nov 25, forcing Minsk to scramble respective combatant jets successful response.

Of the 110 Shahed drones and decoys launched astatine Ukraine connected Dec 1 and Dec 2, 50 were mislaid owed to EW interference and 52 much were changeable down, according to Petro Chernyk, a Ukrainian subject expert.

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