Ukraine admits growing concerns about Russian guided bomb power

FAB-500 bomb equipped with guiding wings hangs on the rack of a Russian Su-34 (Photo: The Drive).

In addition to repeated missile strikes over the past few days, Russia's use of guided bombs is becoming an increasing challenge for Kiev, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said on May 2.

Guided bombs are typically less expensive and simpler to produce than motorized missiles. So using guided bombs would allow Russian tactical jets to drop weapons outside the enemy’s air defense umbrella, carrying out cross-border strikes without risking losing the aircraft.

"Every day, about 20 guided bombs are dropped on frontline areas. They fly about 70km and are capable of hitting important infrastructure," Ukrainian air force spokesman Colonel Yuri Ignat said on May 2. "We cannot deal with this type of weapon, the Ukrainian air defense network cannot intercept the bombs."

Colonel Ignat said the best way to counter guided bombs is to shoot down the fighter jet carrying them. But to do that, he said, Ukraine needs more capable air defense systems than the Soviet-era S-300s it currently possesses.

"The good news is that we have some Western hardware that allows us to target enemy aircraft from a distance of 150 kilometers," Ignat said, referring to two Patriot systems donated by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands that arrived in Ukraine last month.

In the right circumstances, including using “multi-domain sensors,” the Patriot system could attack fixed-wing aircraft from that distance, said David Shank, a retired colonel who is commandant of the Army Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

He also said that the Patriot's radar makes it a much better system against such aircraft than the S-300 system. With more Patriot missiles, Ukraine could prevent Russian aircraft from approaching its border or shoot them down.

However, Mr. Ignat admitted that it is unfortunate that Ukraine only has two battalions and is still waiting for a decision on F-16 fighters.

Russian guided bombs are becoming such a serious problem that Deputy Mayor of Orihiv in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia province, Svitlana Mandrych, expressed serious concerns about their strike power.

“They are very destructive, damaging 80% of houses and private buildings,” she said, adding that the biggest threat at the moment is the guided bombs that the Russian military uses every day on uninhabited territory on the front line of Zaporizhzhia province.

"Russian forces regularly deploy 500- and 1,500-kilogram bombs. These are very large bombs with record destructive power," she said.

Neither Mr. Ignat nor Ms. Mandrych specified the type of guided bomb being used by Russia.

However, according to experts, it could be the Grom smart guided bomb. It has two versions such as Grom-E1 and Grom-E2 and is designed to be suitable for equipment on many types of military aircraft.

A large bomb crater appears next to a destroyed building in Ukraine (Photo: EPA).

In particular, Grom-E1 is equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing only about 310kg, combined with an impact fuse. Grom-E2 with the Russian designation 9-A2-7759 is manufactured based on the KAB-500OD bomb body.

Evidence also suggests that Russia began using conventional bombs equipped with Unified Guided Modules and Lifting Wings (UMPK) earlier this year, posing a significant threat to Ukrainian units. The UMPK includes a GLONASS satellite navigation and control system to significantly increase accuracy and also has lifting wings that allow the bomb to fly farther than the original.

Air superiority allows Russian aircraft to drop guided bombs equipped with UMPKs from high altitudes, allowing the bombs to reach maximum range and keeping the aircraft out of range of most Ukrainian air defense systems.

So while neither Mr. Ignat nor Ms. Mandrych specified what type of guided bomb Russia was using, if their claims are indeed accurate, it would appear that Moscow has achieved some level of large-scale guided bombing capability.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/ukraine-thua-nhan-ngay-cang-lo-ngai-ve-suc-manh-bom-dan-duong-cua-nga-20230503180428935.htm