On the night of March 24, Russian invaders attacked the Sumy region with guided glide bombs – their own analogues of the American JDAM-ER. The enemy dropped 11 of these munitions.

Before that, episodic use of such weapons was recorded. For example, the UPAB-1500V bomb weighing about 1,500 kilograms was dropped by the enemy in the Chernihiv region. The invaders also used their hybrids of bombs and missiles “Grom-E1” and their analogue JDAM-ER.

What aerial bombs are in Russia and what cities are under threat

Guided aerial bombs are munitions equipped with aerodynamic surfaces and a guidance system to increase the chance of hitting a target.

It is known that in Russia there are UPAB-500V guided aerial bombs with a weight of 500 kilograms and Grom-E2, which is a variant of Thunder-E1 without an engine and a 1.5-fold warhead. However, there is no data on the mass production of such bombs.

Also in Russia, they declared the adoption of the Drel glide bomb weighing 540 kilograms, which has a planning range of up to 30 kilometers and instead of a high-explosive fragmentation warhead carries 15 self-aiming submunitions.

To drop bombs of this type, Russian aircraft do not enter the Ukrainian air defense strike zone. Therefore, these bombs carry a serious danger. The distance an enemy can drop such munitions depends on the speed of the aircraft and the altitude it can gain. Under the threat of attacks by such bombs are border and front-line regions, in particular Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkov, Kherson, Zaporozhye and surrounding settlements.

How to counter those bombs

The most effective means against guided aerial bombs is the destruction of its carrier – a fighter. Now the enemy is taking advantage of the fact that he understands the range of Ukrainian air defense, which is not capable of hitting his fighters at launch positions.

Therefore, the American Patriot air defense systems and the French-Italian SAMP / T will help change the situation. For example, the American complex is capable of hitting enemy targets at a considerable height at a distance of up to 150-160 kilometers, which is twice as much as Ukraine's S-300 air defense system. At the same time, SAMP/T has a range of up to 100 kilometers. The only question is the number of complexes that Ukraine will receive – will they be enough to cover all areas.

However, even one successful use and destruction of an enemy fighter while trying to launch a bomb may reflect the desire of the Russians to use similar tactics in the future.

Recall! On March 24, attacked the Sumy region with Shahids and guided aerial bombs. Drone launches were carried out from the northeast direction. Enemy tactical aviation was raised from two Russian airfields – Morozovsk and Akhtubinsk. Ten Su-35 fighters fired 11 guided bombs and one Kh-31P missile.