“Any signal in the EMS [electromagnetic spectrum] has vulnerabilities,” said Carlson, a former president of the Association of Old Crows, a professional organization for electronic and cyber warfare professionals.

Each type of JDAM has a different set of vulnerabilities, Carlson told Task & Purpose. While the U.S. military has countermeasures against attempts to jam GPS-guided weapons, Carlson declined to say exactly what those measures entail.

Meanwhile, Russia, China, and other potential adversaries have closely observed how the U.S. military has used GPS-guided weapons since NATO air operations in 1999 against Serbia so that they could improve their jamming technologies, Carlson said.Since 2015, the Russians have deployed “brute force” jammers to Syria that disrupt a large swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, Lewis said. These jammers are so powerful that they can affect planes landing in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“The problem with these big, powerful, brute force jammers is they’re easy to target,” Lewis told Task & Purpose. “It’s sending up a big signal that says: ‘Here I am. Target me.’ If you don’t have to worry about people shooting back, it can be attractive. I think that’s one reason you see it used in Syria.”

The Russians also have more sophisticated jammers that can jam specific frequencies, and they have invested time and effort into developing capabilities to spoof a GPS signal and throw navigation systems off course, Lewis said. That is why the Chinese military, which lags behind Russia in electronic warfare capabilities, is buying Russian-made jammers