The invasion of Ukraine is typical Russian military action. Long-range cruise missiles are used against civilian and military targets. The thing in the use of the cruise missiles is that the Glonass/GPS systems are effective only if the location of the target is well-known. And another thing is that the system should know all the time if the target is moving. In the western military.
The problem with the Russian missiles is this: are they accurate enough to make pinpoint accurate attacks? So are they shot at civilian targets on purpose? And how well do their systems stand against high-power ECM (Electronic Counter Measure) jamming?
The attacks are followed by high-flying recon planes or satellites. The problem is that if the target is moving. The missile should know that thing or it misses the hit. New missiles are so-called kamikaze drones. They are cruising above the battlefield. The official name of those systems is loitering drones. They can use against things like cruise missile batteries.
Those drones are like Aquila target/recon drones that are equipped with anti-tank or some other type of warhead. The Aquila was the system of the 70s. And there are more advanced systems that are replacing it. But basically, they are all similar systems.
Those kamikaze drones are transmitting data to the command center. And when the target is visible the controller will give an order to dive against that target which can be a ship or main battle tank. They are normal recon drones that are equipped with a warhead.
The difference between a kamikaze drone and a cruise missile is minimal. The famous "Tomahawk" cruise missile is the only BQM-119 drone that is equipped with a conventional or nuclear warhead. But "kamikaze drones" can patrol above operational areas and transmit data and then make the attack against the target.
The kamikaze drones that are using radio control are vulnerable to jamming. The EMP strikes can also drop those things. When we are talking about pinpoint accuracy there are two or three types of internal navigation systems. The GPS is needed to locate the beginning point of the flight of the missile. Then the inertial navigation will take the missile to a certain point of the flight route.
The other way is to use TERCOM (Terrair contour matching)-system. The TERCOM means, that the system uses a series of images that are stored in the memory of the computers to fly to the target. In that system, satellite or high-flying recon plane will make the 3D topography map by using radar or lidar. And then the missile will use that data to find the route to its target.
And finally, the image recognition system or ATR (Automatic Target Recognition) will select the target by using scene-matching technology. That system has the image of the target stored in its memory. And when the image that the camera transmits matches with the image that the missile will aim to target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_target_recognition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_MQM-105_Aquila
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loitering_munition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile)
https://networkedinternet.blogspot.com/
