May 10, 2024: American Department of Defense officials admit that many of the GPS guided weapons supplied to Ukraine are not functioning correctly because of Russian GPS disruption efforts. Russia does not simply jam the GPS signals, instead the GPS signals are rendered less accurate. That means a guided bomb or missile that normally lands within a few meters of its aim point, now lands a hundred or more meters away.

The only guidance systems that overcome this interference are those that use the more expensive Optoelectronic systems that rely less on GPS and more on what the digital camera in the warhead can see and that enables the missile to navigate by using an Artificial Intelligence based system that relies on heat sensing or laser guidance to home in on a target that is in sight. GPS disruption systems do non have a long range, so GPS guidance works long enough for the weapons using Optoelectronic systems to identify and hit the target.

Bombs that use laser guidance are also immune to jamming because the aircraft launching the guided bomb keeps its laser on the target until the bomb strikes.  The laser signals can be modified slightly so that more than one bomb won’t home in on the same target.

NATO countries are sending more of these jam resistant or immune to jamming guided bombs to Ukraine. Russia has been quick to come up with new forms of jamming but not quick enough to prevent many guided weapons from accurately hitting their targets.