In a single week in September 2024, Russia dropped more than 900 glide bombs alongside its 800-mile entrance line with Ukraine, based on Ukrainian estimates.
Ukraine was virtually powerless to cease the long-range weapons – and the consequences were devastating.
Often called Russia’s “miracle weapon”, glide bombs would typically be used to wipe out key Ukrainian targets, from logistics bases to military headquarters. Fitted with wings and satellite-aided navigation, every weighed as much as three tons.
Nonetheless, 12 months later, Russia’s glide bombs are successfully ineffective, owing to the sudden success of Ukrainian radio jammers.
Fighterbomber, a Telegram channel run by an nameless Russian pilot, stated Ukrainian jammers had “saturated the entrance line”, blocking the glide bombs’ inner navigation techniques.
“All satellite-guided correction techniques have left the chat,” the pilot stated.
Credit score: Russian Ministry of Defence
That doesn’t imply Russia has stopped dropping glide bombs. However they’re typically was duds, touchdown in fields removed from their meant targets, relatively than smashing into Ukrainian reserve forces or a military division’s headquarters.
Jammers – which might take the type of particular person decoys or type a part of a jet’s wider defence system, as with western-made F16s – block enemy techniques by emitting interfering alerts.
Based on Fighterbomber, it now typically takes as many as 16 glide bombs to hit a single goal.
Simply months in the past, Kyiv appeared helpless to cease the bombs. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s former overseas minister, instructed the Monetary Occasions on the finish of 2024 that “you can’t jam [glide bombs], you can’t cover from them”.
Mr Withington instructed The Telegraph the Russian glide bombs “ought to have been designed and outfitted with a sturdy international navigation system, which receives an encrypted sign and needs to be immune to jamming”.
“To place it bluntly, Russian glide bombs shouldn’t be getting jammed,” Tom Withington, a weapons knowledgeable on the Royal United Providers Institute assume tank, defined.
Because of this both the Russian glide bombs had been so poorly designed that they’re vulnerable to jamming, or Ukraine has discovered methods to beat protections constructed into the weapons.
On condition that Russia had been efficiently utilizing glide bombs for a number of months, it’s extra prone to be the latter.
It’s a vital improvement, given the devastation the bombs had been inflicting as just lately as November, serving to Russian troops make their fastest advance since the war began. Their new ineffectiveness could have contributed in the direction of the truth that Russian advances slowed for the third month in a row in February.
The information will problem Donald Trump and JD Vance’s belief that Kyiv has no likelihood of pushing Russia again or sustaining its present positions.
And the impression on the entrance line could possibly be vital, degrading Russia’s potential to assault Ukraine at its rear, which has been a key a part of the Kremlin’s technique of attrition.
Earlier than sending in hordes of troopers, Russian forces are identified for launching intense bombardments to weaken Ukrainian positions, creating confusion and inflicting preliminary casualties alongside the entrance line.
“Now, Ukraine is stopping Russia from having the ability to hit targets reliably behind the entrance line. [Moscow] can’t have an effect on Ukrainian command and management, or disrupt logistics, which means their forces can’t transfer at tempo and manoeuvre in a manner they need alongside the battlefield,” Mr Withington defined.
There may be concern that Ukraine’s progress with jamming, and throughout the battlefield, could also be undermined by Mr Trump’s recent decision to pause all military aid and intelligence for Kyiv.
Europe has vowed to fill the void the place mandatory however specialists have stated it will likely be difficult for Ukraine to carry on fighting effectively beyond this summer, with out US assist.
However a supply instructed The Telegraph that Ukraine’s European allies have already engaged with digital warfare firms about whether or not they would possibly guarantee Kyiv’s jamming capabilities are maintained.
The pause in US help and intelligence got here amid reviews that Ukraine has just lately discovered success alongside the japanese entrance, reclaiming key positions and inflicting “unsustainable losses” on Russia.
On March 1 alone, Russia is assumed to have misplaced 1,340 troopers to loss of life or damage, based on Ukrainian army estimates.
Ukrainian forces have superior towards Russian troops near the major eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, reclaiming some essential positions, based on warfare bloggers.
Nonetheless, the jamming of glide bombs will not be a silver bullet, neither is it essentially the first motive for Russia’s slowing advances or Ukraine’s rising success.
“Any tactical benefit is a end result of a variety of components… All technological advances like these are often non permanent,” Mr Withington stated.
And it isn’t solely Ukraine that has had success with weapons-jamming. Ruslan Leviev, a army analyst at Battle Intelligence Workforce, instructed The Telegraph that Russian jamming had compelled Ukraine to cease utilizing a variety of weapons.
Mr Leviev stated: “The impression of Russian jamming techniques has been famous a number of instances on this warfare. Due to them, the availability of high-precision Excalibur artillery shells was halted.” The Excalibur is a US-supplied GPS-guided artillery shell.
Ukraine’s rising success in jamming, a type of digital warfare (EW), will not be restricted to glide bombs but in addition applies to drones.
Ukraine is more and more in a position to intercept Shahed drones and turn them back into Russian or Belarusian airspace.
Improvements in Ukraine’s EW interference imply that almost all of Russian drones are intercepted, misplaced, or turned astray, based on the Institute for the Examine of Conflict, a US-based assume tank.
Some 38 Russian Shahed drones entered Belarusian airspace on Nov 25, forcing Minsk to scramble a number of fighter jets in response.
Of the 110 Shahed drones and decoys launched at Ukraine on Dec 1 and Dec 2, 50 had been misplaced as a consequence of EW interference and 52 extra had been shot down, based on Petro Chernyk, a Ukrainian army knowledgeable.
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