Among the Ukrainian artifacts named after Ukrainian support, the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), known as the "Sea Teacher", used to be the biggest darling. In the early days of its appearance in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, it has repeatedly achieved miraculous feats with high mobility and high precision. It poses a great threat to high-value targets such as command nodes and logistics centers on the Russian front. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has declared the HIMARS system a high-priority target for the Russian army.
However, as time goes by, HIMARS, like other "artifacts" in the mouths of Ukrainian supporters, cannot escape the fate of turning from a little sweet to a cow lady. Gradually, HIMARS faded out of the news focus and became a little transparent.
Ukrainian HIMARS in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, July 2022
The failure of guided ammunition on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield
defense one网站最近一篇文章《Another US precision-guided weapon falls prey to Russian electronic warfare, US says》（美国称另一种美国精确制导武器成为俄罗斯电子战的牺牲品）揭示了其中原因。
The article says that the precision-guided munitions supplied by the United States have failed in one mission after another in Ukraine.
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon's head of procurement, said at an event held by the think tank CSIS that a ground-launched version of a new air-to-surface weapon developed for Ukraine had too low a hit rate on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, in part because of Russia's electromagnetic warfare.
La Plante said that Ukraine may no longer be interested in such weapons. La Plante Says:
"When you send something to people that doesn't work in a real fight, they try it three times and then just throw it aside. “
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said based on his description, the weapon Lapland was referring to was likely a ground-launched small-diameter bomb (GLSDB).
GLDSB has a range of 90 miles – twice the range of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS, guided munitions used by HIMARS, pressed) that Ukraine previously used to wreak havoc on Russian logistics centers. Ukraine is using the weapon until February 2024.
GLDSB, like the GMLRS launched by HIMARS, is a navigation method of inertial navigation + GPS, which is not a victim of the first guided munitions on the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Daniel Patt, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said in his congressional testimony in March that GPS-guided weapons such as the Excalibur and GMLRS "went from 70 percent to 6 percent effective in a matter of months."
Russia has also successfully used electronic warfare against GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) – a modified aerial bomb.
Russia mainly uses GPS spoofers to counteract, and the source of technology may come from Huaqiangbei
The Russians mainly use GPS spoofers to counter these guided munitions.
GPS spoofers work by sending fake location data to GPS navigation devices. Since the GPS signal is weaker, a stronger error signal can be sent to override the correct input.
GPS spoofing principle
Later in Defense One's article, some people mentioned that Russia would share this technological adaptation with China. Soon someone poured another basin of cold water on him
You can make a more pessimistic assumption. Russia is developing solutions so quickly because it can find all the parts in China. Things like portable drone jammers and GPS spoofers are AliExpress-level technology in China.
Researcher Clark likewise noted: "It's not until the last decade or so that you really see the emergence of miniaturized, powerful GPS spoofers, because you need microelectronics to do that." ”
Advances in technology mean that GPS spoofers can be created cheaply using software-defined radios and open-source software. Obviously, these Russian devices do not rely on disassembling washing machine chips to obtain these things, and they can purchase all the things they need in one stop in Huaqiangbei.
It is precisely because of the cheapness that Russia can saturate the use of these technologies on the front line. Every six to nine miles on the Ukrainian front line there is a set of on-board electronic warfare systems focused primarily on jamming drones. Comparatively, a GMLRS missile costs about $160,000, while an Excalibur shell can cost up to $100,000. The cost of GLDSB is around $40,000.
From FPV rotating quadcopter drones to GPS jammers, let us inadvertently find that Huaqiangbei is quietly changing the form of modern land warfare.