Western media has turned its attention to another Russian weapon being used in Ukraine, highlighting how feared it is by Ukrainian forces: the FAB-500 and UPAB-1500, the latter of which is called the KAB by the Ukrainians. The massive gliding bombs, which can have warheads of up to 2,000 pounds, have emerged as an adaptation to Ukrainian air defenses by allowing Russian pilots to drop them far from the front lines.
As both Russian and Ukrainian personnel have attested, the gliding bombs have played a significant role in denting Ukraine’s so-called counteroffensive, which has taken months and an appalling number of lives to advance just a few kilometers southward.
Alexei Leonkov, a military analyst and editor of Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland), told Sputnik on Monday that the weapons are both a practical solution and an effective weapon, which is why the enemy fears them so much.
“The fact is that the air defense systems that Ukraine receives as military assistance from NATO countries cannot defend against this type of target, because these targets do not produce a signal, they fly along a gliding trajectory. As a rule, they are deployed without entering the area guarded by air defenses. These glide bombs are made from conventional bombs by simply adding a special device - the so-called wings. There are adjustable bombs, they have a warhead of 500 or 1500 kilograms,” he said.
In that way, the FAB-500 glide bombs are essentially the same as the United States’ JDAM kits used to turn conventional bombs into guided munitions.
"This kind of ammunition is used in those fortified areas that have serious fortifications and in those places in the ‘gray zone’ where the enemy is trying to concentrate units in order to reach our first line of defense. There is no way to stop such ammunition, so when it strikes its target, it is, as a rule, a 100% success, and the enemy has 100% losses. Since there is no antidote, they are afraid of them, and the West cannot in a short time create any system that could identify these bombs and shoot them down," he said, noting that "Russia does have such systems."
Leonkov explained how the bombs work in more detail, noting they are actually even more accurate than the JDAM.
“These are bombs that are used to hit Ukrainian positions. This is a remake of conventional free-falling bombs, it simply adds the appropriate mechanism that turns an ordinary bomb into a projectile that can fly a distance of 30 to 50 kilometers. At the same time, they are used as conventional bombs with the help of our fighter-bombers and attack aircraft. The first demonstration of these bombs is called FAB 500M-62. A special device is added to this bomb, which makes this bomb glide. As a rule, it does not affect its weight and size properties,” he explained.
Leonkov noted that converting unguided bombs into guided munitions offers "big savings," since producing purpose-built guided bombs cost substantially more and the FAB-500 still strikes its targets accurately thanks to the added computer, which automatically corrects its flight path. That computer works with a device called the SVP-24, which is onboard the firing aircraft, that calculates the correct trajectory for the pilot to deploy the bomb correctly, too.
"Thus, it reaches the target that it hits. There is a special product, it is not adjustable, it is called UPAB-1500B, a guided aerial bomb, which weighs 1.5 tons. It is made by 'Region,' a company that is part of the Tactical Missile Arms Corporation. And this guided aerial bomb is a specialized product, but the 1500-kilogram aerial bomb was also taken as the basis. And then control mechanisms - wings - were added to it and a small device was added that allows this bomb to also plan and hit targets with high precision."
"From American guided bombs, they differ in price and accuracy of use," Leonkov noted.
"Ours are accurate, their average deviation from the target point is no more than 10 meters. It is considered a precision munition. That is, the refinement of this product made it possible, firstly, to launch it at a distance of up to 50 kilometers. What that means is that when this bomb is deployed, the aircraft is not threatened by enemy air defenses, which are mostly medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems. And then the bomb flies to the target and hits it."
Leonkov said the bombs have made a big impact on the battlefield, busting up enemy fortified positions that had previously posed problems for Russian ground forces.
A FAB-500 bomb fitted with a JDAM-style pop-out gliding wings and a precision guiding system
"The strike impact on especially fortified points has increased. Those same points, as participants in the hostilities have said, even a 120-millimeter shell does not cause significant damage to. And such fortified areas were shown - there are bunkers cast from concrete, with anti-fragmentation lining, with hermetic anti-explosion doors - such a hardpoint in which the enemy can survive any raid."
"But when these bombs began to be used, the situation began to change dramatically. Firstly, these fortified areas are being destroyed, and secondly, the warhead, for example, in the UPAB-1500, is almost 1 ton - a ton of ammunition that destroys this kind of structure. Such bombs were used during the liberation of Artemovsk, when the militants occupied a residential building, turning it into an impregnable fortress. And with a UPAB strike, this residential building was leveled to the ground, burying all the militants under it. This, of course, was terrible, because until a certain time such houses had to be stormed, incurring losses. And then one UPAB arrived, and there is no longer a fortified area."
Leonkov noted that weapons like the UPAB-500 and FAB-500 fill in an important gap, saving expensive and valuable weapons like the Kalibr cruise missiles and Zircon hypersonic weapons for more difficult and specialized tasks.
"The question here is, firstly, price and quality. If you are doing a task that can be completed with such ammunition, then it is justified. After all, a Kalibr is, firstly, a long-range weapon, a high-precision weapon and its speciality is hitting especially protected objects, where you need to have penetrating abilities that break through concrete structures, bunkers," he said.
"That's when the Kalibr is used. The UPAB-1500 or FAB-500 are of course cheaper than the Kalibr. And if you can achieve results with cheaper ammunition, then you should use them. But if these ammunition types don't work, then we need to look for those which might work: in this case, Kalibr and Zircon missiles."