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Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Electronic Warfare Lessons From Ukraine Informing Air Force Special Operations Future
As it looks to remain relevant in a future that could see conflict with a great power like China, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is seeking to apply key lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, a high-ranking U.S. Air Force official told The War Zone. The ability to operate in a dense electronic warfare environment and to adapt very quickly to new tactical challenges, in particular, are great areas of interest, spurring a review of how the command views training and new acquisitions, the official said. For the past two decades, AFSOC's arsenal of aircraft operated in largely benign electromagnetic combat environments, often guided by special tactics airmen on radios, in virtually uncontested airspace against insurgent groups possessing no electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. In Ukraine, both sides possess such robust EW abilities that each has resorted to fiber optic cables, impervious to jamming, for a significant portion of their FPV drone operations. Communications there are often highly degraded, and offensive and defensive measures are constantly being updated by the combatants in an endless game of whack-a-mole. Jammers exist on many individual vehicles, and GPS is also under constant electronic attack. Even U.S.-donated munitions like the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) have seen their effectiveness reported thwarted, at least in part, by EW. One of the major takeaways from Ukraine is figuring out how special operations forces (SOF) airpower can fight 'in environments that are heavily degraded, in terms of jamming, in terms of electronic warfare, electronic attack,' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss planning issues. The command needs to 'increase our acumen and our skill set and our ability and capability and capacity' to ensure EW success, both offensively and defensively. In future 'GPS-denied environments, how do you have alternate [precision, navigation and timing] PNT? Resilient PNT? How do you fight and survive? Really, both of those sides of the coin in an environment like Ukraine have provided a wealth of information and lessons learned, and how you do that in an environment that is really unique to what we've seen over the last several decades?' The Russian 'Black Eye' EW system that jams FPV and Mavic video is now in mass production and is appearing across the whole is a serious development for Ukraine as one system can shut down radio drone operations across an area of 2-4 km when located high enough.1/ — Roy (@GrandpaRoy2) May 4, 2025 As a result of these takeaways, the official said AFSOC is considering changing the way it prepares for war. 'Our people are a decisive advantage, more important than hardware,' the official posited. 'So how do we train all the way from our ground forces, the Special Tactics units, how do we train them? How do we equip them to be relevant in the EW fight, but also then onto our platform? So we're looking at, how do you leverage aircrew back onto certain platforms? … What platforms might require some of our combat systems officers to be put back into the crew complement? Once you do that, how are you training them to be effective from day one, as they come to us out of their initial qualification training, what systems are those?' Beyond how it utilizes its airmen, AFSOC is also rethinking its acquisition process, with an eye on becoming far more nimble in this regard than in the past. 'This need to really be proactive and dynamic, to change the capabilities of either the platforms or just jump from platform to platform, in terms of capability to respond to the dynamic environment that you're experiencing. You've seen this probably plenty in your own reporting about how quickly both sides are adapting their capabilities to employ in combat, and the need to react to that rapidly. And so what that means to me, in the position that I'm in, you start to think about how do I apply this to – we talk in terms of programs of record, but maybe I need to be talking about programs of capability,' the official suggested. 'There's certainly your major platforms… But in some of the lower-level kinds of things – offensive asymmetric capabilities – what do you do there? You see… a lot of systems every day in that theater being employed, but if we are trying to plan to gain a capability, how are we flexibly able to determine what might be viable today that may not be viable, maybe in a few weeks or six months, or a year from now? So you want to have flexible programs of capability so that you can now leap to the thing that works today, may not work a year from now. So I've got to be able to make that leap in a very dynamic, rapid way to be relevant on the battlefield.' Moving away from so-called 'exquisite' systems that are very complex, expensive, and time-consuming to build to more affordable and attritable ones is also a possibility for some mission sets and capability needs, according to the official. 'Oftentimes, we think in terms of major weapon systems. Well, some of these capabilities we may need to think more of in terms of consumables, more like ammunition. That we can employ them [in a way] if we lose them, that's not a concern the way that it would be with a major weapon system platform, so that we can then either divest and move to the next thing, or we've employed them and we've lost some, and that's okay, too.' As for programs of record, the official said that AFSOC's recent acceptance of the last of the AC-130J Ghostrider gunships and MC-130J Commando II transport/tankers it plans to purchase 'is something to be celebrated, and that's a great milestone. But that doesn't mean we're anywhere near being done with the work that we would want to put into them to keep them relevant in the scenarios that you're asking about, certainly with what we're learning.' The need to be able to rapidly update these platforms and other systems to keep them relevant is growing larger by the day. Addressing this, too, via systemic procurement and development changes is also important, according to the official: 'And then, in terms of the systems themselves, this is where we're working with, both the service and SOCOM, where you have autonomous systems. You get into radios that we want to be software defined, so that you aren't constantly chasing what I call the 'Box of the Month Club,' where by the time you have laid a great deal of resourcing into a system, it's got to be so dynamic that you aren't vendor locked. Thereby. You need open systems architecture, you need modularity and this notion of government reference architectures between SOCOM and the Air Force, so that you can then rapidly iterate to change, in some cases, the actual functionality of the system itself to be responsive to now what you're seeing on the battlefield.' 'How are we training our people? Do we have the right systems on the airplanes? How are we integrating those with the broader SOF and joint force to make them relevant? Those are all really key foundational considerations' that AFSOC is working on. Contact the author: howard@
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US resumes supply of modernised high-precision guided GLSDB bombs to Ukraine
The United States plans to resume deliveries of high-precision GLSDB (Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb) bombs to Ukraine, upgraded to counter Russian electronic warfare systems. Source: Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the situation Detail: Reuters sources report that GLSDB bombs could return to the battlefield in the coming days, as their stockpiles are already in Europe. The Ukrainian military last used them several months ago. The previous GLSDB bombs that Ukraine received were vulnerable to Russian electronic warfare systems, preventing them from effectively hitting targets. In response, 19 test launches of upgraded versions have been conducted in recent weeks to improve their resistance to jamming systems. Fore reference: GLSDBs are high-precision guided munitions with a range of 100 miles (161km), combining a GBU-39 aerial bomb with an M26 rocket motor. They enable Ukraine to strike Russian logistics centres and ammunition depots beyond the line of contact. These munitions were procured during the administration of former US President Joe Biden as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Background: Associated Press, citing an American official and a Ukrainian MP, stated that Ukraine had likely run out of all long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles. The American official stated that the United States had provided Ukraine with fewer than 40 of these missiles in total and that they had run out in Ukraine by the end of January. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Russia Today
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
US to send upgraded long-range bombs to Ukraine
The United States has upgraded the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) to counter Russian jamming and is set to 'reintroduce' them onto the battlefield in Ukraine within days, according to a Reuters report. The GLSDB, jointly developed by Boeing and SAAB AB, combines the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb with the M26 rocket motor, creating a weapon with a range of approximately 100 miles (161 kilometers). The administration of former President Joe Biden sent an undisclosed number of GLSDB units to Kiev, but it has been 'months' since Ukrainian forces last used the bomb against Russia after it proved ineffective last year, sources told Reuters. Russia's electronic warfare capabilities rendered precision-guided Western munitions – including GLSDB and GPS-guided Excalibur artillery shells – 'useless,' the Wall Street Journal reported in July. With their guidance systems scrambled, some of these weapons were reportedly retired within weeks of being deployed. Since then, Boeing has introduced several upgrades, including reinforced internal connections to enhance resistance to jamming. According to Reuters sources, at least 19 GLSDBs were test-fired in 'recent weeks' to assess the effectiveness of the modifications. The US has stockpiled a significant number of these relatively inexpensive bombs in Europe and is 'poised' to resume shipments to Kiev within days, the publication reported. The potential replacement comes amid reports that Ukraine has depleted its stockpile of US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a longer range of 300 km. Kiev began using ATACMS missiles for strikes into internationally recognized Russian territory in the autumn of 2024, particularly targeting the border regions of Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, and Rostov. However, the stockpile was fully exhausted by late January, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies against permitting long-range Ukrainian strikes, arguing that such attacks would make NATO a direct participant in the conflict due to Kiev's reliance on Western-supplied weapons. In response to Ukraine's first ATACMS strikes in November last year, Russia launched its new hypersonic Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Yuzhmash military-industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US to resume shipping long-range bombs to Ukraine, Reuters reports
The United States is preparing to resume shipping long-range Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) to Ukraine, Reuters reported on March 13, citing sources familiar with the weapon. According to Reuters, the GLSDBs, which have been upgraded to more effectively counter Russian jamming, may be used by Ukrainian military forces in the coming days, as a stockpile is already present in Europe. The weapons will arrive at a critical time, as U.S. and Ukrainian officials have confirmed that Kyiv's supply of Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, has been depleted. In total, the U.S. sent Ukraine long-range ATACMS since the start of the full-scale invasion. Earlier this week, President Trump's administration to resume security assistance to Ukraine, including military aid and intelligence sharing, following high-level talks in Saudi Arabia. Kyiv also confirmed its commitment to the interim 30-day ceasefire proposed by Washington, on the condition that Russia agrees to the terms and implements them simultaneously. U.S. security assistance to Ukraine had been previously frozen following the heated meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on February 28. The GLSDB can reportedly strike at a range of 160 kilometers, expanding Ukraine's long-range capabilities, alongside Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS missiles. The delivery of the GLSDB was first announced by the Biden administration in February 2023, with initial estimates putting their arrival in Ukraine in late 2023. Ultimately, the weapons were first delivered in February 2024. As talks on a 30-day ceasefire continue, the Trump administration toughened sanction on March 13 on Russia's oil and gas industry. The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump said on March 7 that he is considering imposing sweeping banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until there is a ceasefire and peace agreement. Read also: US toughens sanctions on Russian energy paymentsWe've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US long-range bombs headed to Ukraine as ATACMS supply dwindles
By Mike Stone WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. is poised to resume shipments to Ukraine of long-range bombs known as Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), after they were upgraded to better counter Russian jamming, two people familiar with the weapon told Reuters. The munitions will arrive amid reports that Ukraine's supply of similarly-ranged Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) has been depleted. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The glide-bombs were purchased under the U.S. administration of former President Joe Biden using the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The U.S. has bought nearly $33.2 billion worth of new arms and military equipment for Kyiv directly from U.S. and allied defense contractors. President Donald Trump's administration agreed on Tuesday to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said it was ready to support Washington's proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia. In recent weeks, 19 GLSDBs were test-fired to assess the effectiveness of the upgrades. Part of the modifications involved reinforcing connections within the weapon to enhance its resilience, the people said. The reintroduction of the GLSDB onto the battlefield could occur in the coming days, as a stockpile is already present in Europe. The last time Ukrainians used the weapons was months ago, one of the people said. Russian jamming had kept many of Ukraine's relatively new long-range GLSDBs from hitting their intended targets, three people familiar with the challenges told Reuters last May. Ukraine over the last year sought weapons with longer ranges than the 43 miles (69 km) of U.S.-provided GMLRS rockets so Kyiv could attack and disrupt Russian supply lines and muster points. To answer that call, Boeing offered a new weapon to the Pentagon with a 100-mile (161-km) range, the GLSDB. The glide-bomb has small wings that extend its reach, and it comprises the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) and the M26 rocket motor, both of which are common in U.S. inventories and relatively inexpensive. Boeing declined to comment. But the GLSDB's navigation system, which enables it to be steered around obstacles such as mountains and known anti-air defenses, had been successfully targeted by Russian jamming, the three people briefed on the matter said in May. The bomb is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing, and was in development well before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Jamming happens when huge amounts of energy are broadcast into an area, overwhelming a device's signal. Russia has used the tactic on Ukrainian radios, drones and even GPS-guidable Excalibur 155-millimeter artillery munitions.
