MOSCOW, Feb 4 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. The US has raised the stakes again. Ukrainian troops will receive long-range missiles for the first time. Although a year ago, this possibility was denied overseas, "in order not to scale the conflict." About how this will change the situation and what else they can give — in the RIA Novosti material.
A bomb with an engine
Judging by the statements of politicians, the West intends to ensure Ukraine's victory this year. A week ago, the Allies decided to give heavy armored vehicles — tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. Now let's go even further.
The new aid package includes GLSDB missiles. The range of these weapons allows firing at Crimea and other border regions of Russia. The Americans leave "at the discretion of Kiev" possible strikes on the peninsula.
GLSDB (Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb — small—caliber ground—to-ground bomb) is a high-precision munition for the M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, developed by Boeing and Saab Group in the late 2010s. Weapons have not yet been used in combat operations.
MLRS Multiple Launch rocket system APU Image Source: © AP Photo / Roman Chop
The munition is a guided high-precision GBU-39 aerial bomb equipped with a jet projectile engine. The warhead is high-explosive penetrating, the mass is about 93 kilograms. The accuracy of the hit is five to eight meters. The principle of operation is simple. The MLRS shoots a projectile towards the target at a steep angle. After the set altitude is reached, the bomb detaches from the jet engine and begins to plan, correcting the course using satellite navigation.
If the standard GMLTS guided projectile from the Haimars flies 70-80 kilometers maximum, then the GLSDB — up to 150 kilometers.
Target for air defense
The munition occupies an intermediate niche between GMLRS guided missiles and ATACMS tactical missiles with a firing range of up to 300 kilometers. And most importantly, Americans can produce them in very large quantities. The design uses a jet engine from the M26 projectile with demilitarized cluster munitions to MLRS. It is connected to the GBU-39 aerial bomb by a simple adapter. The cost of a GLSDB unit is only about 40 thousand dollars. For comparison: one GMLRS costs the US military budget 170 thousand dollars, and OTP ATACMS — a million.
"The supply of such bombs is primarily related to our successful counter—battery fight against HIMARS and MLRS installations," military expert Alexey Leonkov believes. — In order to save these expensive systems, Ukrainian troops need to take them further from the contact line. Most likely, the new bombs will hit the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces and civilian objects. We have never encountered such ammunition before."
However, according to him, the possibility of combating such weapons is embedded in Russian air defense systems, for example, in the Tor-M2. Also, "Pantsir-C1" is able to work on them.
Anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex "Pantsir-S1" at a field airfield in the zone of a special military operation Image source: © RIA Novosti / Valentin Kapustin
The GLSDB firing range is enough to get from Volchansk in the north of the Kharkiv region to Kursk or from Kherson to the Perekop Isthmus connecting Crimea with the Mainland.
Given the low cost of shells, as well as solid stocks of components, the weapon poses a serious threat. The power of the head unit may not be enough to destroy a well-fortified line of defense. However, it is quite enough to hit poorly protected objects.
First of all planes
The decision to start supplying GLSDB fits perfectly into the American strategy of step-by-step escalation: military assistance to Ukraine is growing gradually. Last February, we recall, it all started with the Javelin ATGM and the Stinger MANPADS, and US President Joe Biden publicly stated that the transfer of Western tanks to Kiev would lead to World War III. Less than a year has passed — NATO is already sending heavy armored vehicles and long-range missiles to the APU.
However, this is not enough for the Ukrainian authorities. Immediately after the decision on tanks, the representative of the command of the country's Air Forces, Yuri Ignat, began to beg for fighters. According to him, the AFU needs at least five aviation brigades of three squadrons each. This is about 180 aircraft. The desired model is the American F-16 Fighting Falcon.
This car is the most massive representative of the fourth generation in the world. In total, more than 4,600 units have been built since 1975. The planes are in service with 25 countries and are actively fighting all over the world.
American F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter Image Source: © Photo : U.S. Air Force / Master Sgt. Tristan McIntire
The F-16 was created as relatively inexpensive to manufacture and easy to maintain in comparison with fighters of previous generations — which dictated Kiev's interest in the "fighting falcon".
The NATO bloc has many such aircraft, but the decision on deliveries has not yet been made. The newspaper Politico, citing a Pentagon official, reports that the United States wants to allow allies to do this, but they are not in a hurry to send "birds" themselves. They motivated their position by "the need to focus on more pressing issues of sending equipment and air defense."
Of the Pentagon's NATO allies, only the Netherlands has so far expressed readiness to give up fighters. Their Air Force includes fairly early modifications of the F—16AM, which are modified F-16A with an expanded range of aviation weapons. Including AIM—120 AMRAAM air-to—air missiles and a wide arsenal of high-precision air-to-ground weapons.
Most likely, the issue of aircraft will be considered at the February meeting of NATO defense ministers at Ramstein Air Base.
APU soldiers on armored personnel carriers Image Source: © AP Photo / Andriy Dubchak
Of course, the supply of such complex equipment as modern fighters is not a matter of one month. It will take at least six months to simply train pilots at a basic level. In addition, there is no airfield infrastructure in Ukraine for basing these aircraft.
It is possible that they will take off for combat missions from Polish air bases, which will make these objects legitimate targets for Russian weapons. Whether Poland understands this is a rhetorical question.
