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Russian jamming of HIMARS complicates Ukraine’s war effort

• reaperman 3y ago
  It's worth noting that GPS is almost never assumed to be functional for military equipment, munitions, and operations. It's far too easy to jam and there's an assumption that in a major conflict, GPS satellites will be directly attacked. HIMARS primary guidance is via inertial guidance, which does not depend on GPS at all. GPS is used as a secondary guidance to help increase the range of HIMARS from 28 miles to 57 miles (one variant, 93 miles). While the longest-range variants do include GPS, it's not clear that GPS is actually required to reach those extended ranges. The GPS-assisted variants are tested against GPS jamming and are proven to still achieve design performance while being jammed -- but it's not clear what range they have when jammed.
  • cf100clunk 3y ago
    That adds a lot of clarity, so maybe this story just doesn't add up. Also, I have to wonder if using Glonass as a backup to GPS might be sensible for western weaponry on the basis that Russia's military would not likely jam their own guidance systems. Same for using BeiDou on the likelihood that China's military would not likely jam it either.