HIMARS multiple launch rocket system on Ukraine's southern front in September 2022. (Source: WSJ)

With guidance systems disrupted, some weapons are believed to have stopped functioning within weeks of entering combat.

When the US announced the delivery of GPS-guided Excalibur artillery shells to Ukraine in 2022, pro-Kiev media predicted that the $100,000 shells would “make Russia suffer.” But according to Ukrainian commanders, the Russian military adapted within weeks.

Russian signal jamming equipment provided false coordinates to the artillery shells and caused interference, causing Ukrainian artillery shells to deviate or fall to the ground.

“By the middle of last year, the M982 Excalibur round developed by RTX and BAE Systems had essentially become useless and was no longer in use,” WSJ quoted Ukrainian commanders as saying.

The Soviet Union invested heavily in electronic warfare (EW) in the 1980s, viewing jamming technology as a vital bulwark against the guided missiles and artillery shells that the United States was beginning to develop at that time.

While weapons like the 1990s-era Excalibur artillery shell were used by Washington to devastating effect in Iraq and Afghanistan, US officials and analysts conclude that they are far less effective than a peer adversary like Russia.

“The Russians are really good at tampering with guided munitions,” said William LaPlante, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

“We probably made some wrong assumptions because for the last 20 years we’ve been launching precision weapons against people who can do everything… Russia and China actually have these capabilities,” retired US General Ben Hodges, who predicted that Western weapons would help Ukraine seize Crimea, told the WSJ .

Some of NATO's most advanced weapons systems met a similar fate in Ukraine.

The newly developed Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), a joint project of Boeing in the US and Saab in Sweden, was delivered to Ukraine earlier this year, but was withdrawn from combat after being found completely ineffective against Russian electronic warfare.

Similarly, Russian electronic warfare capabilities have significantly reduced the accuracy of Western-supplied guided multiple launch rocket systems (GMLRS), fired from HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems.

Like the Excalibur, the GMLRS missile has been described by pro-Kiev experts and analysts as a “game changer” that could turn the conflict in Ukraine’s favor.

Russia has long insisted that no Western weapons system could prevent it from achieving victory. Last week, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, warned that supplying such weapons was a “useless project” that would only encourage Kiev to “commit new crimes.”