The FAB glide bombs have been such a game changer in Ukraine that even Western media outlets are forced to concede their effectiveness, which has tormented Ukraine’s defenses on the front line as their use has increased.
“The Western press is calling this weapon a game changer,” Security and international relations expert Mark Sleboda told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Wednesday. “And for once, I might actually agree with them. This weapon has been a game changer.”
FABs, which are old Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with inexpensive pop-out wings and targeting systems to transform them into “smart bombs” devastated Kiev forces in Avdeyevka, forcing a chaotic retreat from the heavily fortified city.
Essentially the equivalent to the US JDAM missiles, the FABs are more accurate and powerful, Sleboda explained. “They come in a variety of sizes, from 250kg” up to 1,500kg, he explained. “And the new ones that are soon supposed to hit the battlefield are 3,000kg. That’s a three-ton bomb,” he noted, adding that it can “demolish” a fortification in “one shot.”
“It just leaves a big smoking crater in the ground,” Sleboda emphasized.
Meanwhile, the few JDAMs supplied to Ukraine have had little effect on the battlefield because the Kiev regime lacks an air force that can penetrate Russia’s air defenses. In contrast, Russia has been using the FABs frequently, noting that more than 500 of them were dropped on Avdeyevka in the last few days of the attack on the city.
“The only way to counter [FABs] is if you have really long-range air defense, which the Kiev regime has none left of,” Sleboda explained, adding that a Patriot system may have the capability to target the planes dropping FABs but even that is questionable as advancements in FABs have increased their range as the conflict has gone on.
“Other than that, there’s really nothing. You have to shoot down the planes [that] drop them or have really substantial air defense capable of targeting them incoming,” Sleboda continued. “The regime has neither left, which is why now they’re making a big splash on the battlefield. Russia is free to use them because all of [Ukraine’s] Soviet legacy air defense, all the hodgepodge of Western air defense that’s been sent to them is gone.”
Noting that because they come from Cold War stockpiles, Sleboda explained that Russia has an “effectively unlimited supply” of FABs. “They are going to vastly accelerate the Russian process of dismantling the Kiev regime's fortified positions, [these] urban areas that have been turned into fortresses.”