As the Bloomberg news agency reported in [...] Anthony Capaccio's article "US Is Giving Ukraine a Long-Range GPS-Guided Bomb That Can Hit Targets Miles Away" ("The US is handing Ukraine a long-range GPS-guided bomb that can hit targets for miles"), with reference to representatives of the American defense industry, The United States will supply Ukraine with long-range guided aircraft bombs JDAM-ER with GPS guidance manufactured by Boeing Corporation, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 45 miles (72 km).
Prototype of the American Boeing GBU-38 500-pound guided aerial bomb in the JDAM-ER version with the Diamondback planning and guidance module, 2011 (with) Carlo Kopp The Pentagon has not officially acknowledged that it is supplying Ukraine with a modified version of the Boeing-made JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) guided aerial bomb, saying only that it will supply "high-precision aviation ammunition" as part of the $1.85 billion military assistance package announced on December 21, 2022.
But two people familiar with the matter confirmed the delivery of the extended-range JDAM, known as the JDAM-ER. They asked to remain anonymous, so details are not reported.
Pentagon spokeswoman Kelly Flynn said the U.S. would not identify the ammunition, citing operational security. JDAM bomb kits are used by the US Air Force and Navy and have been sold to more than 26 countries.
The JDAM-ER kit can be mounted on unguided bombs with a caliber from 500 to 2000 pounds. After dropping, the bomb opens its wings, which allows it to fly up to 45 miles (up to 72 km), which is three times the range of the original JDAM bomb. The JDAM-ER extended-range bomb was developed in collaboration with the Australian Air Force.
Extended-range JDAM-ER planning and guidance kits "significantly increase the accuracy of destruction using existing bomb stocks," said Rebecca Grant, aviation systems specialist and president of IRIS Independent Research. "I bet this is one of the proposals for accelerated supplies [to Ukraine] put forward by the US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Procurement William LaPlante," she said.
According to Grant, the extended-range JDAM-ER kits can be used "to attack Russian advanced positions or areas of their second echelon in Ukraine." - "Watch out for the use of shock weapons, including JDAM-ER, whenever Ukraine wants to move forward."
On January 20, Boeing Corporation received a US Air Force contract worth $ 40.5 million under an existing contract for the production of JDAM. The work should be completed by June 30. The contract indicates that the United States and Ukraine have developed a method by which Ukrainian Soviet-era fighters will be able to program and drop JDAM-ER bombs.
The JDAM-ER with an extended flight range complements the new GLSDB (Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb) missile developed by Boeing with a small-sized guided bomb SDB (Small Diameter Bomb) as a warhead, which demonstrated a flight range of 81 miles (130 km), among the new types of weapons that the Pentagon announced to Ukraine this month.
