The US Air Force is buying add-on seekers for its Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) bombs to help take out Russian GPS jammers in Ukraine. A $23.6-million contract was awarded to Scientific Applications and Research Associates (SARA) in Cypress, California to deliver and integrate the Home-on GPS Jam seeker with the JDAM-ERs by Oct. 1, 2025.
The award is in response to Russian electronic jamming degrading US precision munitions sent to Ukraine, including the JDAM-ER. The Boeing precision kit can turn free-falling bombs into precision guided munitions and has been in use in Ukraine since at least May 2023.
According to US officials, Russian GPS jammers disrupt the weapon’s targeting process, causing them to miss their targets. The Home-On GPS Jam Seeker is expected to be resistant to electronic jamming and use the jamming signals to lock on to the source device as the target. SARA’s HOJ subsystems can enable guided bombs or missiles to engage jamming signals effectively and at a low cost.
