U.S. Weapons Lose Effectiveness Against Russian Jamming

The accuracy of the M-982 Excalibur guided artillery has decreased by 90 per cent in Ukraine due to Russian Electronic Warfare systems that jam ammunition. According to a report by the American newspaper "Washington Post", the Western ammunition sent to Ukraine, mainly from the U.S., is becoming less and less effective. The reason is the Russian Electronic Warfare systems and the interference of Western ammunition. According to the Daily, the accuracy of the M-982 Excalibur GPSsatellite-guided artillery ammunition decreased by 90 per cent within a few months. Kyiv was forced to ask the U.S. Department of Defence to upgrade its control systems. According to the confidential evaluation based on direct visual observations, Ukrainians initially had success with Excalibur 155mm rounds, hitting their targets more than 50 per cent of the time early last year. Over the next few months, that fell below 10 per cent, with the evaluation pointing to Russian GPS jamming as the cause. The Excalibur precision artillery round is typical of many U.S. weapons: expensive, smart, and accurate. Ukraine has employed rounds fired by U.S. artillery systems such as the M777 to destroy targets such as hostile artillery and armoured vehicles at distances ranging from 15 to 24 miles. Six months ago, when Ukrainians reported the problem, Washington stopped sending Excalibur shells due to their high failure rate, according to Ukrainian officials who spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive security matter. In other circumstances, such as aircraft-dropped bombs known as JDAMs, the manufacturer issued a patch, which Ukraine continues to employ. Between the autumn of 2023 and April 2024, Ukraine's military command compiled the reports and shared them with the United States and other sponsors to develop solutions and establish direct contact with weapons makers. In interviews, Ukrainian authorities described an unnecessarily cumbersome process that hampered progress towards desperately required improvements to the failed armament.