US smart bombs no match for Russian defenses according to leaked Pentagon docs

Leaked documents from the Ukraine war have revealed that American-made bombs are failing against Russian defenses. In a report from Politico, the United States began sending Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) to aid Ukraine in the fight in December. 

The precision-guided bombs have been missing their targets due to Russian electronic jamming devices. The documents stated that Russia is using GPS jamming capabilities to disrupt the targeting system. Other American officials believe that other American-guided weapons could also be causing the JDAMs to miss their target.

Another issue shown in the documents is that some of the bombs were not detonating when they hit their target because they failed to arm properly when dropped, an issue for which the Ukraine military created a fix. 

Former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer Mick Mulroy said “I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones.”

The documents were confirmed by one Department of Defense official, but their spokesperson, Lt. Col. Garron Garn, declined to comment on the contents of the leak. He said in a statement “We have seen Ukraine use the security assistance the US and our partners and allies have provided to great success in the defense of their sovereign territory.” He continued, “We are not going to discuss battle damage or intelligence assessments due to operational security considerations.”

21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was arrested Thursday in connection with leaking hundreds of classified documents to a private Discord server. After the arrest, Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense wanting to know the extent of involvement the United States has in Ukraine. 

The letter said that the leak showed “Nearly 100 special forces from Western countries, including more than a dozen Americans, have been operating on the ground in Ukraine,” Green demanded. “It is vital for the Department of Defense to provide Congress with answers to the presence of US troops in Ukraine."

Teixeira began posting the documents to his private Discord server and its 20 to 30 members last fall, before they started to show up on other social media platforms. One document showed doctored troop level numbers, which each side claimed was a psyops from the other side.