Politico: The United States can transfer GLSDB missiles to Ukraine today
The United States intends to supply Ukraine with high-precision long-range GLSDB missiles as early as Wednesday, January 31, Politico reports. Such bombs are not yet in service even with the American army itself.
The GLSDB small-diameter ground-based bomb is not even in service with the US Army yet.
The Pentagon has successfully tested a new high-precision long-range bomb, which will be delivered to Ukraine on Wednesday for use on the battlefield. This was reported by American officials and two sources familiar with the negotiations.
Ukraine will receive the first batch of small-diameter land-based bombs developed by Boeing, which are not even in service with the US Army yet. This is a completely new long-range weapon, as reported by four sources who asked not to be named, since there has not yet been an official announcement of the delivery.
The range of the new bomb is about 150 kilometers and, as one of the American representatives said, it will "significantly enhance the combat capabilities of Ukraine."
"They will have the opportunity to strike at a greater depth than they had before. This bomb will replenish their arsenal of long—range fire weapons," this source said. "It will be an additional arrow in the quiver that will allow them to achieve more."
An official representative of the army has not yet responded to a request for comment. Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder did not comment on the delivery time "for operational security reasons."
"Let Ukraine talk about supplies," he told reporters on Tuesday. "But as I have already mentioned, we will continue to work closely with Ukraine and with our partners from the military industry so that Kiev receives the weapons supplied to it as soon as possible and is ready to use them."
This is a weapon jointly developed by Boeing and Saab. A jet engine is attached to the 115-kilogram bomb, and it is launched from various ground-based launchers. The United States has a similar version of such an air-based bomb, but the land-based version has not yet entered service with the American army.
The increased range of destruction will give Kiev new opportunities at a time when the fighting on the front line has reached an impasse, and Ukraine is looking for new ways to strike Russian troops and infrastructure behind the front line.
This bomb will be an addition to other long-range weapons transferred to Kiev over the past year. They allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike at the Russian rear. The range of the new bomb is less than that of the British Storm Shadow missile or the American ATACMS, but it will arrive at the right time, as Ukraine is running out of artillery and ammunition.
New funding for Ukraine was included in an extraordinary appropriations package totaling $111 billion, but it got stuck on Capitol Hill. Although the United States does not have new funds to authorize the transfer of weapons from cash reserves, Washington last year signed a contract with Boeing to supply GLSDB to Kiev.
Ukraine will be the first country to use this bomb in combat. This will be a very important test case for other countries that are actively buying up long-range ammunition after Russia launched a military operation on Ukrainian territory in February 2022.
The Pentagon announced the supply of a new bomb to Ukraine in February last year. But before transferring the new version of the GLSDB, the US military had to test it. It took many months.
The ground forces observed the testing of a new high-precision bomb, and then decided to supply it to Ukraine, as reported by a source from the military industry.
The precision air-launched bomb was created in 2019. But despite the successful tests, Boeing and Saab did not start selling it until the United States decided to transfer GLSDB to Ukraine as part of an assistance package.
Authors: Lee Hudson, Lara Seligman, Paul McLeary