Russia is using its advantage in military aviation to inflict devastation on the positions of the defenders of Ukraine. Gliding bombs can be relatively precise, extremely powerful and almost impossible to take down. Most importantly, they can be launched from areas that are inaccessible to the Ukrainian air defence. And now Russia is making FAB-3000 bombs.
FAB-3000 is not a new weapon, but Ukrainians suspect that Russians are about to teach it to glide. Image credit: Colby Drake, U.S. Navy via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Russia has been using FAB bombs with UMPK modules in Ukraine for quite some time. Essentially, the UMPK is a Russian guidance glide kit for dumb (as in, not smart) bombs. Essentially, the UMPK is a pair of pop-out wings that extend once the bomb is dropped and allow it to glide forward. This allows these bombs to fall onto Ukrainian positions without the planes coming too close to them.
Ukrainian air-defence capabilities are constantly growing, but the UMPK kit allows bombers to stay away from Ukrainian air defence zones. FAB-500 can glide 70 km away from the drop zone.
The defenders of Ukraine absolutely hate the Russian gliding bombs. These munitions are not very accurate and many of them do not even explode. However, Russia has a lot of them and uses them liberally.
FAB-3000 M-54 aerial bomb. Image credit: Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
The worst thing about them is that they are nearly impossible to take down. They are gliding at high speed and do not have much of a thermal signature as no engine is involved in the travel of the FAB-500. IR-seeking missiles, including compact MANPADs, cannot do anything about the FAB-500 attacks.
This is what a FAB attack looks like from the positions of the defenders of Ukraine:
😔 “I will clearly show you how the Russians drop FABs in one of the directions every day. You sit like this and do not understand when this bomb will fly into your trench.” – TG Говорять Снайпер pic.twitter.com/6tscOg2gps
— MAKS 23 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) March 21, 2024
The UMPK module entered service in 2023 and immediately gained a reputation as a significant problem. In fact, some experts believe that one of the major tasks of the F-16 in Ukraine will be keeping the Russian aircraft away from that 70 km striking range.
The FAB-500 was the first bomb to use the UMPK kit and is the most widely used. Later on, in September 2023, FAB-1500 with the UMPK module also attacked Ukraine. This particular aerial bomb was shown publicly in January 2024.
FAB-1500 with UMPK kit. On top, you see pop-out wings and the bomb also has an aerodynamic nose cone. Image credit: Mil.ru via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
Now Russia revealed that the production of FAB-3000 has started in February. It is believed that these bombs will get their UMPK kits with pop-out wings too. Dropping them as simple dumb bombs is not going to work, because Russian planes cannot fly over Ukraine. But by gliding away from the drop zone they can inflict a lot of damage.
Why are the defenders of Ukraine worried about the FAB-3000? The number in the designation of the Russian bomb refers to its weight. FAB-3000 is six times heavier and more powerful than the FAB-500, which is devastating as is. The 3-tonne FAB-3000 would unleash unprecedented devastation on the position of the defenders of Ukraine and, probably, Ukrainian settlements.
And that’s where Russia has a huge advantage. Artillery can be destroyed by drones, but Russia can prepare the battlefield with numerous glide bomb strikes. Gliding bombs cannot be taken down easily and so Russians destroy the Ukrainian positions, move forward, and then repeat.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: MAKS 23 Twitter, Wikipedia