Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) flops in Ukraine

Guess you could file this under "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Looks like it just couldn't overcome Russian electronic warfare (GPS jamming. etc.). Maybe with some more development?

"Citing U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante, the report said that the Ukrainian military has discarded the sophisticated precision-guided weapons after they failed to penetrate Russian electronic warfare defenses on several occasions.

“One company, I won't say who they are, they came up with a really cool idea of taking an air-to-ground weapon and doing a ground-launched version of it, and it would be a long-range fire weapon,” said LaPlante.

“It didn't work for multiple reasons, including [the] EMI [electromagnetic interference] environment, including just really ... doing it on [the] ground, the TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures], the DOTML [the doctrine, organization, training, and materiel] — it just didn't work.”

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/glsdb-muni...222700650.html

Funny how the Ruskies are able to jam these but not a remote controlled Cessna 150 that can fly all the way to Moscow.

The MIC, and by extension our military, is learning a LOT from the war in Ukraine. It is the playground of 21st Century weapons and tactics. The ChiComs are watching too.....

From the article:

Quote:

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He also indicated that the U.S. government truncated the usual testing requirements to expedite the weapons system's acquisition. As a result, the weapon was "produced as quickly as possible."

GLSDBs are not currently used by the U.S. military, and Ukraine was the first to test it in combat.

“And what happens is, when you send something to people in the fight of their lives, [and] it doesn't work, they'll try it three times and then they just throw it aside; so that's what happened,” the official concluded.

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Rushed job to see if someone's good idea worked, not really tested or refined, experimented briefly in a combat zone, and abandoned. I'd say a waste of money, but in all honesty, it probably was cheaper than testing it for years only to come to the same conclusion.

Well, it does have Boeing's name attached to it :D

Um, why? It sounds like a long range 105 mm gun. I could almost see it if it were shorter range, but why make it such long range, although that is not identified. Maybe if you were to put them in them in an M.L. RS Launcher so that it could carry more? Maybe as an unguided or semi gated ripple fire weapon with intermediate distance capability?

Like my family, says, “that’s an idea, but not a very good one.“

The bomb itself (presumably GBU-53) weighs about 250 pounds and has a net explosive weight of about 100 lbs (close to the weight of an entire 155mm projectile).

The idea was to take out of date M26 rockets and mount a SDB to them to get some use out of the rockets since at the time the US didn't want Ukraine using those evil cluster munitions. I do believe that policy has changed since there are a lot of vids of Ukraine using cluster munitions, might be part of the reason to drop the project is that now we are just giving them the M26's. The idea still has merit, use a rocket to boost a glide bomb to altitude to extend the range of the ordnance, I would not be surprised if there was further development of this concept. If gps jamming is really a problem then put a seeker head on them that guides in on the EW transmitter, put the seeker off a HARM 88 to attack AD radars etc.

It remains to be seen if this program will be scrapped or sent back to the drawing board.

I can't see SAAB giving up on it, between this and drones I predict manned aircraft are going to take a hit on near peer battle space.

There was a generation of GPS guided munitions, including the JDAM. Everyone clapped then they turn insurgents into chunky salsa. GPS guided munitions are cheaper and lower risk to the air craft than laser guided bomb units. However, GPS jammers have been used against US forces and. Munitions before. Sometimes the jammers have been effective, other times not.

Counter-countermeasures/Home-On-Jam (from the 3 May 24 DoD contract announcements):

"Scientific Applications and Research Associates Inc., Cypress, California, was awarded a $23,554,341 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee, undefinitized contract for the acquisition of Home-on GPS Jam seekers. This contract provides for the integration of the extended range seekers into existing Joint Direct Attack Munition wing kits. Work will be performed at Cypress, California, and St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 1, 2025. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Ukraine. This contract was a sole source Small Business Innovation Research Phase III acquisition. Fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $9,961,706 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8213-24-C-0017)."

On 5 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it...