The UK Defense Minister, Ben Wallace, declared this past week a curious fact: Russian fighter-bombers shot down, of the Sukhoi Su-34 model, are being found with a common GPS fixed on the aircraft .
According to Ben Wallace, Western countries are suspecting that Russia is having problems developing its aircraft geolocation system, based on Glonass, the Russian version of GPS.
The system is a basic Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS, worth around 10.000 rubles. An airplane's own navigation system, even a basic one like the Garmin G774, can cost thousands of dollars.
Although inexpensive, the eTrex is a high-sensitivity GPS receiver capable of maintaining the triangular satellite signal even in areas of interference or low signal strength.
The Su-34 has a navigation system, this uses signals from the North American GPS and the Russian Glonass, mainly to have a backup system and greater precision. Without an official statement from Russia, it's impossible to describe whether there is a problem with the Su-34's systems, or whether the Garmin GPS is just an onboard backup.
wallace said: “Russian vehicles were not properly maintained and grounded many logistics vehicles, leading to cheap tire blowouts and truck axle hub failures, all due to poor maintenance or maintenance money being taken elsewhere. As an aside, the large amount of Ukrainian drone footage suggests to me that they too lack a broader air defense and anti-UAV system.”
He continued: “But it's not just ground forces. 'GPS' receivers were found glued to the dashboards of downed Russian SU-34 planes, so that pilots would know where they were, due to the poor quality of their own systems.”
Wallace also denounced that ground troops are using paper maps produced in the 80s, during the Soviet Union, and without many updates from countries that separated in Eastern Europe between the 80s and 2000.
The first information about basic GPS used by Su-34 planes was during the War in Syria, in the last decade. The information was presented by a Russian politician and Air Force veteran, Viktor Alksnis, according to him as something that could affect the security of Russian combat operations.
However, the wreckage found in Ukraine may indicate that Russia is still having problems with the geolocation system some 30 years after the Su-34 entered service.
With information eurasiantimes.
