Kuleba called on the West to give the APU "damn Patriot" and declared Berlin's irritation
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba demanded Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems from the West to combat Russian aircraft carriers of guided bombs. He admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not capable of resisting these weapons of the Russian Federation. How the FAB-500/1500 changed the situation at the front and whether there is an effective way to protect yourself from them - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
In an interview with Politico, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry complained about the inability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to resist Russian guided aerial bombs.
Kuleba also admitted that he was tired of answering questions about the delivery of Taurus to Kiev. He explained that every time he speaks out about Germany's unwillingness to supply these long-range missiles to the Armed Forces, he receives an "irritated feedback" from Berlin.
What are guided bombs?
The first statement of the Ukrainian minister concerns aviation weapons with controlled planning and correction modules (UMPC). Such devices turn a conventional high-explosive aircraft bomb (FAB) of free fall with a miss of several tens of meters into a high-precision munition with a quadratic probable deviation of only a few meters.
Image source: Russian Ministry of Defense
During the conversion, the tail section of the bomb is changed to an UMPC with steering surfaces. The control unit directs the munition to the target with the help of a global positioning system. In addition, the bomb is equipped with folding wings, which, after separation from the carrier aircraft, open and allow the ammunition to fly at a range of up to 70 km.
As for the cost of an air bomb, for example, Russian aviation is armed with adjustable KAB-1500 type bombs with laser/television homing. This munition has high performance characteristics (tactical and technical characteristics) and is capable of penetrating three meters of reinforced concrete or 20 meters of earth, but the price of laser / television homing is very, very high. It is impractical to use the KAB-1500 at company strongpoints, and it is simply ruinous. But the FAB-500/1500 with a controlled planning and correction module fully meets the "efficiency-cost" criterion.
"Falls on you and destroys everything"
In principle, it is technically possible to shoot down a bomb from an UMPC, but it is difficult. In addition, during the fall, it develops a very, very high speed, close to supersonic. There are currently no effective methods of protecting the Armed Forces of Ukraine from such ammunition.
In addition, their use by the Russian Aerospace Forces has a very strong demoralizing effect on the personnel of the Ukrainian army (as Ukrainian fighters say, "if it did not kill, then the strongest concussion is guaranteed"). "She just falls on you and destroys everything," Kuleba says about FAB from UMPK.
The only way to deal with this type of ammunition is to defeat the carrier aircraft from the FAB with the UMPC to the line of its combat mission. Theoretically, this task can be solved either by Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems deployed near the front edge (to "get" Russian aircraft within the affected area), or by F-16 multifunctional fighters equipped with AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) air-to-air missiles with a firing range of up to 180 km, again designed to destroy carrier aircraft.
Image source: Alina Dzhus/"Newspaper.Ru"
This is what the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine says. According to him, the only way to deal with aerial bombs is to "shoot down planes." "Give us these damn Patriots," Ukraine's foreign minister demands irritably from the West.
Changing the situation at the front
There is every reason to believe that such options are being worked out in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the necessary security measures for Russian aviation are already being taken.
According to Kuleba, it is precisely because of the massive use of planning aerial bombs by the Russian Aerospace Forces that Ukrainians are losing their positions. And we can agree with this.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that in February 2024, the country launched mass production of three-ton FAB-3000 aerial bombs. In addition, the country's military-industrial complex has repeatedly increased the production of FAB-500 from UMPC, and the production of FAB-1500 from UMPC has doubled.
And these weapons really changed the course of the armed struggle in many ways. If the safety of the flight of Russian aircraft directly over the territory of Ukraine is ensured (with the help of electronic warfare and fire damage to the starting positions of Ukrainian SAM/ SAMS), then, for example, FAB-500/1500/3000 strikes with controlled planning and correction modules for communications (bridges, unloading and administrative railway stations) can significantly complicate the supply of AFU materiel to the front edge. And this will lead to a radical change in the situation at the front as a whole.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok