Challenges and solutions: The mixed performance of Western weapons in Ukraine

Not all weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine have performed as expected. Despite many successes, there have also been failures. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment LaPlante pointed out the GLSDB ground-fired bombs as an example, which have underperformed for several reasons. One of the more significant issues is the Russians' disruption of GPS signals in some regions.

This results in the circular error probable (CEP) of the bomb or missile drastically increasing from a few yards to several tens or even hundreds of yards, depending on the distance. This happens because the passively operating inertial navigation solution is burdened with a margin of error that accumulates over time. This method calculates position based on data about the bomb or missile's flight speed and time.

Reduced accuracy is not a problem for all weapon systems. However, those with very high destructive power will still eliminate the target even if they fall, e.g., 100 metres farther. This refers to guided bombs from the family like JDAM-ER, especially those of 450kg or 900kg, out of which half constitutes the explosive charge, or ballistic missiles MGM-140 ATACMS.

It's much worse in the case of weapons with a smaller warhead. For example, guided missiles M982 Excalibur contain several kilograms of TNT, and missiles GMLRS have a larger charge of 23kg in the case of a 90kg warhead. Similar values also contain glide bombs that are part of the GLSDB missiles.

The solution to this problem is using guided missiles or bombs with their own optoelectronic guidance heads that see the thermal image of the target or guidance based on a laser beam. These are resistant to electronic warfare systems and allow attacking moving targets with an extraordinary precision of below 3 metres.

The first option is the best but very costly and relatively rarely used. However, it can be found, e.g., in French guided bombs AASM Hammer delivered to Ukraine or in Israeli modules for guided bombs SPICE. In both cases, after arriving in the target region by inertial navigation, thanks to appropriate object recognition algorithms, the missile or bomb can find and track the target in the last phase of flight through the optoelectronic head with a thermal imaging camera.

The second way to ensure perfect hit precision without GPS is to use a laser beam guidance system. This method is old, effective, and cheap, but it does have flaws. The biggest one is the need for continuous illumination of the target with a laser pointer until the moment of impact, which means it is not a "fire and forget" weapon.

In addition, many military vehicles have warning systems against laser beam irradiation that can determine the beam emitter's exact position, even in their latest versions. This makes using weapons based on laser beam guidance problematic, but certain ways exist to mitigate these disadvantages.

One of several is the use of drones capable of operating in such difficult environments as, for example, FlyEye to illuminate targets for artillery systems or aircraft cooperating with them, which requires having an advanced battlefield management system or at least direct cooperation between artillery or aircraft - drone operator. Alternatively, special unit operators acting behind enemy lines are used to illuminate targets.

For example, Ukraine received Paveway IV bombs and Vulcano 155 GLR missiles from Germany with a range of up to 80km, along with SAL guidance heads. However, it's also worth mentioning the Ukrainian 152 mm Kvitnyk missiles, whose stocks have long been depleted. Among other interesting things, it is worth mentioning that they are ready but so far not ordered by the military Polish missiles APR 155, about which journalist of the Virtual Poland Łukasz Michalik wrote.

As you can see, although Americans seem to have relied a bit too blindly on satellite navigation, modern systems are on the market capable of operating in environments where GPS is not available.