- After 17 months of testing, Ukraine's new glide bomb is finally ready
- A new domestic source of glide bombs could help Ukrainian warplanes match Russian warplanes bomb for bomb
- With their heavier warheads, glide bombs hit much harder than drones do
- The Ukrainian bomb may have at least one high-tech feature other glide bombs lack
Every day, day after day, Russian warplanes pummel Ukrainian positions with as many as a hundred KAB glide bombs. The 40-km-range, satellite-guided bombs, some as heavy as three tons, are among the most devastating weapons in Russia's 51-month wider war on Ukraine—and a crucial factor in Russia's plans for a renewed push in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.
Russia rains thousands of glide bombs on Ukrainian troops every month. Ukraine's pilots get a few dozen American- and French-made ones. A homemade bomb is Ukraine's only realistic way to start closing that gap.
Now Ukraine is preparing to bomb back with its own homemade glide bombs. On Monday, Brave1—the Ukrainian government's defense tech arm—released new footage of an all-Ukrainian glide bomb in testing. In the footage, a Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 drops one of the winged bombs.
After 17 months of development, the 250-kg-warhead bomb "is ready for combat deployment," Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced. "Pilots are currently rehearsing combat scenarios and adapting the new weapon system for use in real wartime conditions. Soon, Ukrainian glide bombs will be striking enemy targets."
The Ukrainian glide bomb can't reach air force fighter and bomber brigades fast enough.
Yes, Ukrainian forces have significantly escalated their drone strikes on Russian forces in the critical middle zone stretching around 200 km from the disputed gray zone. It's in this zone that the Russians concentrate their front-line logistics. Striking the supply convoys as they're winding their way toward the combat regiments weakens the regiments before they can even launch an assault.
Heavier strikes
But a middle-range strike drone with a 50-kg warhead lacks the explosive firepower of a glide bomb with a 250-kg warhead.
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The Ukrainians don't have much choice but to lean on drones for middle-range strikes, however. Ukrainian air force brigades rely on paltry supplies of just a few dozen American- and French-made glide bombs a month; they can't match the Russian air force's own regiments as the Russians fling thousands of glide bombs every month.
On the "hottest areas" of the front line around Hulialpole in the southeast, Dobropillia north of Pokrovsk in the east as well as Sloviansk in the east, "Russia is constantly hitting everything with KABs," French mapper Clément Molin noted.
Molin claimed he identified 6,600 KAB impacts along just 150 km of the front in just the last three months. And there are probably many thousands of additional impacts Molin conceded he couldn't pinpoint. There's a destructive disparity as Ukrainian drones lightly tap Russian supply lines while Russian glide bombs heavily smash Ukrainian supply lines.
A steady supply of Ukrainian-made glide bombs could help close the middle-strike gap. As a bonus, the Ukrainian glide bomb appears to have at least one advantage over its American and French equivalents. A large radome at the back of the bomb may house an array of jam-resistant Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas, which many Western glide munitions lack.
To strike accurately, glide bombs need a steady connection to navigation satellites. Ground-based radio jamming can block that connection. A CRPA array can find the navigation signal through the jamming noise. When Fedorov claimed the Ukrainian glide bomb "features a unique design created specifically for the realities of modern warfare," he was probably referring to the CRPA array.
Practically all of Ukraine's warplanes are compatible with at least one type of gliding munition, but the new Ukrainian glide bomb could be especially useful to the Ukrainian air force's small fleet of Sukhoi Su-24 bombers. Su-24s appear to be the main platform for testing of the new glide bomb—and could be the main platforms for deploying the bomb in combat, too.
