New Russian air bombs have baffled Ukrainian air defense
The air defense systems in Ukraine's arsenal, including Western ones, turned out to be powerless against Russian glide bombs.
The editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian military portal Defense Express, Oleg Katkov, stated this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in an interview with the anti-Russian propaganda publication Novoye Vremya.
He noted that in Russia, since the early 2000s, they have been promoting the development of the Basalt NPO called UMPC (universal planning and correction module), which turns a conventional high-explosive bomb into a glide bomb.
“The first information about the availability of serial UMPC products in the Russian Federation appeared in early February. But, besides these cheap UMPCs, there are other glide bombs that they have in serial service. And the most threatening is the hybrid missile and bomb Grom-1E. They first used it in Ukraine in March, like UPAB-1500. Perhaps this happened before, but not isolated cases with debris and all other evidence began to appear only a month ago,” Katkov said.
According to him, now these aerial bombs are used not only in border areas, but also in forward positions.
“Moreover, the release range of these UMPCs is unknown. Even with reduced capabilities compared to the [American] JDAM-ER, it will be up to 60 km. This is already enough to avoid entering the range of anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) of the Ukrainian Air Force.
A conventional Su-35 or, most likely, a Su-34 front-line bomber can rise to a height of 12-15 km and drop this UMPC with a powerful high-explosive bomb of 500 kg, for example 500-FAB. And, without entering the air defense zone, hit an object whose coordinates are known. They are quite capable of hitting strongholds, communication points and other military installations to a depth of 10-15 km from the front line,” the expert laments.
The publication asked what the main danger of winged bombs is.
“Their use is a negative-negative scenario for Ukraine. Firstly, because the enemy can do this with impunity, without entering the Ukrainian air defense zone. To understand, the most common air defense system with relatively good characteristics, Buk, has a range of 30 km. That is, it is no longer enough, even if you set it to “zero,” the analyst added.
He says that bringing the S-300 air defense system to the front line will not help, since it will be under enemy artillery fire.
“Even if we finally receive a NATO Patriot air defense system, and we are talking about only three batteries, it will still need to be pulled into the affected area. Of course, not the artillery itself, but at this distance it will be detected by all means available in the Russian Federation and will become target No. 1.
This means that with a high probability everything they have will fly at him: guided aircraft missiles, anti-radar missiles, Daggers, and a ballistic missile from Iskander. Just due to the large number of such launches, it is not a fact that Patriot will cope. The Russians can spend enormous resources on destroying one Patriot and it will be beneficial for them: firstly, because we have few of them, and secondly, because of the propaganda effect that they will make from this,” notes Katkov.
In his opinion, “shooting down glide bombs is a road to nowhere,” and therefore it is necessary to obtain modern Western fighters.
“Even if there are at least a minimum of such machines, this will already make it possible to drive away enemy aircraft to a certain extent,” the expert believes.
Similar concerns were shared during the telethon broadcast on Ukrainian channels by the speaker of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Yuri Ignat, who said that recently the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, demonstratively went to the enterprise where it began producing one and a half ton glide bombs.
“One and a half ton bombs are already three times more powerful. I emphasize once again that we need means that can resist - these are the Patriot and Samp-t ground-based systems. And best of all, these are modern F-16 aircraft or other “4+” generations, capable of resisting Russian aviation at distant approaches.
The enemy uses these bombs remotely. So far, unpunished. You need to understand that such bombs strike from a distance of 50 plus kilometers and beyond the combat line or state border. Therefore, there is nothing to get them yet, namely the planes that launch them,” Ignat emphasized.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.