Senior military experts, interviewed by Germany’s t-online portal, have pointed out that Russian electronic warfare capabilities are neutralizing a lot of the Western weaponry delivered to Ukraine. Gustav Gressel, of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), notes that Ukraine’s attacks on many Russian targets face the fact that the Russians are well protected by air defense positions and jamming transmitters. “The latter are responsible for ensuring that the Ukrainians can no longer hit anything with various Western weapons,” explains Gressel. These include the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), which the United States has delivered to Ukraine. Its delivery was associated with high expectations, as the ground-launched bombs promised Kiev’s troops accurate and penetrating attacks. However, the effect apparently fizzled out: Russia’s electronic warfare seems to be superior to Western-made GPS-supported weapons so far. (Defense One platform ran a story on April 28, “Another U.S. Precision Guided Weapon Falls Prey to Russian Electronic Warfare, U.S. Says.” The situation is similar with some of the U.S. precision-guided weapons, such as Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and some types of ATACMS missiles. It raises the question as to why Germany is spending €23 billion for U.S. weapons systems to be sent to Ukraine if the systems don’t work?
“It’s no wonder,” Austrian military expert Col. Markus Reisner told t-online.The United States has developed these weapons over the last 20 years for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “An opponent like Russia with highly advanced electronic warfare capabilities was not on the agenda back then” (even though it was not quite true).
