You have seen Russian cruise missiles hitting shopping centers and beach toilets. Have you ever wondered why Russian missiles hit shopping centers and beach toilets?
Despite the Kremlin’s claims of military and technical superiority, the Russian military continues to face a big problem with its navigation and guidance systems. Whether it’s Su-35 fighter jets, guided bombs, Kalibr cruise missiles, S-400 surface-to-air missiles and Iskandar ballistic missiles, all these military equipment has a common problem: inaccurate GLONASS guidance and targeting systems.
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GLONASS has an accuracy problem
Restricted by backward compatible electronics and sanctions by the West, Russia lacks targeting systems and an advanced navigation system. Most Russian cruise missiles are guided by a 1950s inertial navigation system, GLONASS satellites and digitized scene-mapping area correlator (DSMAC) or terrain mapping system. The onboard radar altimeter provides altitude reference, and GLONASS provides geolocation to guide the missile or aircraft to the target using a flight path.
Developed by Russian company Gefest & T, the SVP-24 is a targeting system based on a GLONASS navigation system that acts as a computerized bomb sight to guide munitions. SVP-24 is an old technology developed in 1999s with legacy electronics.
Since GLONASS is inaccurate, Russian military pilots are still actively using insecure, non-military navigation equipment due to the low quality of Russian own navigation systems.
The captured Russian pilot Is Andrey Fedorchukov, a major in the Russian Air Force. The latter had a Garmin GPS navigator with him and a smartphone with the Pronebo app to have more accurate navigation than the onboard navigation devices of the Russian Federation. Russians don’t trust their GLONASS; everyone would like to use American GPS.
Wrecked Russian fighter bombers, attack aircraft and even military helicopters are being found with Garmin GPS receivers “taped to the dashboards” in Ukraine because their inbuilt navigation systems are so bad, the UK’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said.
GLONASS Guidance and Targeting System
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the oldest constellation, with 31 satellites. It was developed by the US military and became operational in 1995. It’s called “Global” because you can receive the signals from this constellation anywhere in the world.
The satellites broadcast signals to Earth, and by calculating the different timing of the received signals from various satellites, a receiver can figure out where it is located. In terms of positional accuracy, GPS is much superior to GLONASS.
GLONASS constellation had achieved full coverage of Russia’s territory in October 2011. The full orbital constellation of 24 satellites was restored, enabling some global coverage.
According to GPS World, most of the 24 satellites that make up the Glonass constellation began broadcasting erroneous data about their locations at lower latitudes. The ability of satellite positioning receivers to provide accurate data is tied to the accuracy of the signal from space, so the problem immediately affected users.
GLONASS constellation is effective in the north and south poles. GLONASS is known to produce erroneous tracking record in the Equator, making GLONASS-guided bombs ineffective in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, reported GPS World.
Back to original topics, the Tomahawk has been regularly upgraded and improved and renown for its accuracy, but Russia does not make public the accuracy or reliability of the Kalibr missiles and guided mutions it has fired in Ukraine or Syria.
Now you understand why Russian missiles are falling from the sky and hitting the beach toilet.
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