[Goose]

News today that US "open" to supplying JASSM long range cruise missiles. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/15...a-00174147

https://x.com/John_A_Ridge/status/1824108239421669599

The F16s Ukraine has should have the capability to fire these, or be easily upgradeable for it. Equiping their Soviet era planes could be tougher but probably pretty feasible considering their previous successful kludges for western weapons like Storm Shadow and HARM.

Even if the software isn't already present I expect the F-16s can be easily upgraded to fire the missile. I would agree that the upgrade of the Ukraine's Soviet era planes to fire the Storm Shadow has been successful. IMO this is largely because 1) the Storm Shadow has autonomous terminal guidance  using its IR camera and 2) the Storm Shadow has both GPS and terrain mapping capability. If GPS is jammed, the terrain mapping can get the Storm Shadow "close enough" for the terminal guidance to work. None of these depends on the launching aircraft for anything more than the "launch" command.

HARM is a different case. It benefits greatly from its interface to the launch aircraft. It seems pretty clear that the HARM missile has not lived up to expectations in Ukraine. It has not provided Ukraine with the ability to operate in contested air space to any noticeable extent. This is undoubtedly somewhat due to the fact that the HARM can only be used in one of its three modes. It is not interfaced to the Soviet era RWRs AFAIK and it is improbable that can be done. Those RWRs are also of limited capability even if such an interface was possible. The fact that Ukraine can launch them at all is an achievement. However, it apparently doesn't work all that well. The F-16s  with HARMs should fare much better, even without targeting pods.

The JASSM actual range depends on the model delivered. The JASSM also has IR terminal guidance in some configurations, so it will still "work" in GPS denied environments. Of course, at 900 km ranges it becomes much less probable the targets will be jammer protected. One important point about the JASSM (and much more so the JDAM) is the "GPS handoff" given by the launch platform to the weapon. US aircraft immediately precedes  the launch command with an exact GPS vector including exact heading and speed. It also contains the exact satellites used for the "fix" and a "delay estimate" for the code. This allows the weapon to obtain a GPS "lock" almost immediately, without having to search the entire constellation for it. More importantly, it provides the weapon's INS an initial position that is as accurate as possible. The INS "initial solution" therefore starts out accurate and does not add to the INS error. This is very important in missions that are in some part GPS denied. Doing this from a Soviet era fighter, while not impossible, is undoubtedly pretty difficult. One can launch the missile without this feature, but it does negatively affect its accuracy.

This would be pretty great, but for them to really make a difference the US would need to take off the leash and let them be used against targets in Russia. Storm Shadow is a similar capability that Ukraine already possesses, but the US is preventing Ukraine from using them in Russian territory (UK and France, the suppliers of the missiles, don't seem to have a problem it).

IMO you are absolutely correct that this position by the US makes no sense. To be clear, the US allows Ukraine to fire US ordinance into Russia in response from an attack from that location. However, if the Russian troops are drinking beer 100 km behind the front and not attacking anyone (yet), US ordinance can't be used. That is just crazy IMO. What is the point of a very long range weapon whose long range cannot be used because pf such constraints?

[Goose]

News today that US "open" to supplying JASSM long range cruise missiles. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/15...a-00174147

https://x.com/John_A_Ridge/status/1824108239421669599

The F16s Ukraine has should have the capability to fire these, or be easily upgradeable for it. Equiping their Soviet era planes could be tougher but probably pretty feasible considering their previous successful kludges for western weapons like Storm Shadow and HARM.

Even if the software isn't already present I expect the F-16s can be easily upgraded to fire the missile. I would agree that the upgrade of the Ukraine's Soviet era planes to fire the Storm Shadow has been successful. IMO this is largely because 1) the Storm Shadow has autonomous terminal guidance  using its IR camera and 2) the Storm Shadow has both GPS and terrain mapping capability. If GPS is jammed, the terrain mapping can get the Storm Shadow "close enough" for the terminal guidance to work. None of these depends on the launching aircraft for anything more than the "launch" command.

HARM is a different case. It benefits greatly from its interface to the launch aircraft. It seems pretty clear that the HARM missile has not lived up to expectations in Ukraine. It has not provided Ukraine with the ability to operate in contested air space to any noticeable extent. This is undoubtedly somewhat due to the fact that the HARM can only be used in one of its three modes. It is not interfaced to the Soviet era RWRs AFAIK and it is improbable that can be done. Those RWRs are also of limited capability even if such an interface was possible. The fact that Ukraine can launch them at all is an achievement. However, it apparently doesn't work all that well. The F-16s  with HARMs should fare much better, even without targeting pods.

The JASSM actual range depends on the model delivered. The JASSM also has IR terminal guidance in some configurations, so it will still "work" in GPS denied environments. Of course, at 900 km ranges it becomes much less probable the targets will be jammer protected. One important point about the JASSM (and much more so the JDAM) is the "GPS handoff" given by the launch platform to the weapon. US aircraft immediately precedes  the launch command with an exact GPS vector including exact heading and speed. It also contains the exact satellites used for the "fix" and a "delay estimate" for the code. This allows the weapon to obtain a GPS "lock" almost immediately, without having to search the entire constellation for it. More importantly, it provides the weapon's INS an initial position that is as accurate as possible. The INS "initial solution" therefore starts out accurate and does not add to the INS error. This is very important in missions that are in some part GPS denied. Doing this from a Soviet era fighter, while not impossible, is undoubtedly pretty difficult. One can launch the missile without this feature, but it does negatively affect its accuracy.

This would be pretty great, but for them to really make a difference the US would need to take off the leash and let them be used against targets in Russia. Storm Shadow is a similar capability that Ukraine already possesses, but the US is preventing Ukraine from using them in Russian territory (UK and France, the suppliers of the missiles, don't seem to have a problem it).

IMO you are absolutely correct that this position by the US makes no sense. To be clear, the US allows Ukraine to fire US ordinance into Russia in response from an attack from that location. However, if the Russian troops are drinking beer 100 km behind the front and not attacking anyone (yet), US ordinance can't be used. That is just crazy IMO. What is the point of a very long range weapon whose long range cannot be used because pf such constraints?