Russian Upgraded FAB-1500 Guided Bombs Decimating Ukrainian Defenses: Inside Story

2024-03-12 09:30:58

Russia is using an upgraded version of its FAB-1500 guided bombs on the Ukrainian war front causing great devastation. This new element in the conflict demonstrates that the arms industry of the country governed by Vladimir Putin is not seriously decimated, as one might think two years after the invasion began, and after the application of harsh economic sanctions by the United States and its allies. .

According to CNN, the FAB-1500 was a simple old Soviet-era weapon, which is now a guided glider bomb that can cause a 15-meter-wide crater and great destruction. Deployable wings have also been added to the artifact.

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The FAB-1500 weighs 1.5 tons, almost half of which are high explosives.

They are launched by fighter jets from a distance of about 60 to 70 kilometers, outside the range of many Ukrainian air defenses, CNN says.

A FAB-1500 bomb. (Russian Ministry of Defense).

Its use was noted in the recent fight for the city of Krasnogórivka, belonging to the Donetsk oblast (region controlled by Russia), where the Russians have taken the town in a “more aggressive way and using air force resources, such as the FAB-1500″, indicated CNN.

“Before they only bombarded us with artillery, now the orcs [rusos] “They took the city more aggressively and started using air force assets, particularly the FAB-1500,” a soldier from Ukraine’s 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade told CNN.

“Why are they using the FAB-1500? Because the damage caused is very serious. If you survive, you will not be free from having a concussion,” he added.

“It puts a lot of pressure on the morale of the soldiers. Not all our men can resist it. Although they are more or less used to the FAB-500 (its predecessor without the ability to glide), but the current FAB-1500 is hell,” the soldier continued.

Newsweek reported that it was able to see images circulating on the Internet that appear to show a bomb hitting a multi-story building in Krasnogorivka, which is on the front lines of the war in eastern Ukraine.

“Epic images of a direct hit by a FAB-1500 against a target in Krasnohorivka,” said a Russian military blogger over the weekend, Newsweek reported.

CNN also maintained that recent videos in Donetsk illustrated the immense power of these bombs hitting thermal power plants, factories and apartment buildings; places from which the Ukrainians coordinate their defenses.

Joseph Trevithick, who wrote about the development of the FAB-1500 bomb for TheWarZone, says they “offer a new and much more destructive ranged attack option for many of Russia’s tactical aircraft, also helping pilots stay further away.” of enemy defenses.”

“These weapons have a significant morale effect, and the tremendous explosions are seen and heard over a wide area,” military expert David Hambling told Newsweek.

The expert confirmed that these gliding bombs allow Russian attack aircraft to “hit ground targets with high precision” without the risk of Ukrainian air defense missiles destroying the ships. “The current version has an accuracy greater than 10 meters, which practically guarantees the destruction of the target with a weapon as large as the FAB-1500,” he maintained.

The FAB-1500 may not be a revolutionary weapon, Hambling argued, but “it does real damage.”

For her part, Marina Mirón, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, told Newsweek: “It is not the fact that they are very destructive that makes them effective, but the new correction module that is has recently updated to ensure accuracy.”

A FAB-1500 bomb being attached to a Russian warplane. (Video capture).

A Soviet era weapon

The FAB-1500 bomb is the largest in the Soviet-era FAB series that also includes the FAB-250 and FAB-500.

According to El Español, in recent months engineers have been working on a gliding system that significantly increases the tactical capabilities of the bomb. The work is carried out at an industrial complex near Moscow.

According to Newsweek, Russia has improved these unguided munitions with a kit known as UMPK, which adds planning and guidance to “dumb” bombs, turning them into “smart” weapons.

After some trial and error exercises, in September of the year the first FAB-1500 bomb accurately found its combat target with a direct hit, Global Security reported. Thus, the last major test was completed before receiving the green light for mass production and commissioning. Now Russia has an inexpensive and up-to-date bomb in its arsenal.

In January of this year, indicates El Español, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, visited one of the largest weapons assembly plants in Moscow where they showed him the gliding system developed for the FAB-1500 bomb.

Through a video published by the Ministry of Defense, the company that improves them highlighted the manufacture of a high-precision munition that converted old free-fall bombs and any type of active guidance systems into weapons that would fly towards their target.

The FAB-1500 has a length of 2.76 meters, a diameter of 63 centimeters and weighs 1,500 kilos. Upon impact on its target, it can form a crater 15 meters in diameter and move fragments about 500 meters.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet taxis on a runway during an air show at the Teknofest festival at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on September 17, 2019. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL/AFP).

The bomb is anchored under the wing of aircraft such as the Su-34M fighter-bomber or the Su-35C multipurpose aircraft and is dropped at the indicated location. The maximum deployment altitude is 12,000 meters and its initial glide speed depends largely on the aircraft, although it can reach 1,900 km/h, already in supersonic terrain, El Español states.

Video capture posted on the official Telegram account of Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk region in Ukraine appointed by Moscow, on February 24, 2024. (AFP).

Used in the fall of Avdiivka

CNN details that the FAB-1500 bombs were used massively in the destruction of the Ukrainian defenses in Avdiivka, which fell into the hands of the Russians in February.

The location of Avdiivka. (AFP).

Yuri Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, told CNN that “on the eve and during the battle of Avdiivka, hundreds of aerial bombs were dropped within days. There were 250 of them used at the Avdiivka address in just 48 hours.”

Justin Bronk, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told CNN that “while manufacturing the glider kits is a bottleneck, the basic explosive package is something that (the Russians) have in large quantities.”

Now, CNN indicates, the Russians have a very heavy fire force to put pressure on fixed Ukrainian defenses, increasing enemy casualties, although insufficient to radically change the front lines.

“This is not a cheap or quick transformation, but it is still much less than the millions of dollars that a missile costs. “They are pennies compared to a missile,” Ihnat told CNN.

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