I know that main advantage of Russian south-east offensive right now is combo of drones (target acquisition) + 500kg FAB bombs (with gliding mods).
Will they run out of bombs or the key to stop this bombing campaign is targeting aircrafts which deployed them.
by mattnessPL
19 comments
From what i get, the started to be producing in the 50/60s with many different variants. Safe to say, they have A LOT! Regarding how the upkeep was for them no one knows, but dont think they will run out of them any time soon sadly.
Literally thousands if not more… they’re vintage iron-body bombs with a smart glide kit attached w gps
We have them too, but they don’t look like aftermarket aluminum plate slag welded together by a caffeinated toddler
Unguided munitions we still have a massive stock pile from the second world war still that’s America this is why the JDAM was invented in the early 80s as we just got rid of world war 2 Stock piles and the cold war from 48 until the 1975 reached millions of ordainments and that’s why its cost effective than just to strap a wing and laser to it than to decommission them and this was why they was invented from 1979 and upgrades from 1996.
Guys, you’re bearers of not-so-good news, but I really appreciate the answers – I didn’t noticed that crap is unguided. Even if it’s 500 kilos, it’s hard for me to comprehend how Russians manage to hit targets 50km with any accuracy when they add homemade mini wings to some ancient ordnance.
Do they carpet bomb the city area to hit just one ZSU’s trench?
FOLLOW UP QUESTION: So if bombs are not going anywhere soon, how many (and what kind of) platforms russians using to fling these s.it?
Although this bombs seem devastating, this article from July in Washington Post gave me hope. It’s entitled, “Russia’s devastating glide bombs keep falling on its own territory”:
> Internal Russian documents show how often its glide bombs hit its own territory, likely due to faulty guidance systems, say experts.
> A May 12 explosion in Belgorod was blamed on Ukraine but independent experts assessed that the blast was likely due to Russia accidentally dropping a bomb.
> At least 38 of the bombs, which have been credited with helping drive Russia’s recent territorial advances, crashed into the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine between April 2023 and April 2024, according to the document obtained by The Washington Post, though most did not detonate.
Eta – i would post behind-paywall link but not sure it’s allowed?
Unfortunately now that the production line is going its likely that they can produce hundreds per months if not more. It’s a very cheap system aswell. If ukraine can torch the facility that produces them then it could slow them down but the best way to stop glide bombing is to make it too dangerous for russian aircraft to approach the front. More patriot ambushes is the answer and actually destroying russian aircraft on the ground would help
I know that Israelis made GPS guided Shahid’s confused, and they give Ukraine know-how how to do it.
Could similar trick worked with FABs?
Are FABs guided by GPS or the Russian counterpart?
Those of us that lived through the Soviet Union know they never throw anything away. They will have 10s if not 100s of thousands of these dumb bombs. Countering them means keeping them away from launch locations and destroying the stockpiles.
11 years into the GWOT we were still dropping JDAMs made for Vietnam. Didn’t see a build date later than 1972 the whole time. I think to this day the newest Mk. 82 I’ve come across was 1975.
I imagine Russia is close to the same with FABs. The only limit is how fast they can build guidance packages.
An ungodly amount specially ungodly seeing as they were mostly made under communism
The best approach is to blow them up in the depot before they get launched.
It is rather airplanes and ammunition logistics as the limiting factor.
They have a de facto limitless supply of these. You have to shoot the jets.
Hundreds, perhaps billions.
Unfortunately probably a LOT. They’re cheap and can be strapped to a lot of old ass soviet bombs. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had thousands.
Destroying the aircraft capable of launching them, would help. If proper AA can be placed in the newly conquered kursk region, it could keep Russian aircraft far enough from ukraine’s east border to be effective in hitting Ukraine targets
Fap bomb
I couldn’t find a number for how many bombs Russia has stockpiled, this is as close a number as I could find.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz5drkr8l1ko.amp
“The explosive part is essentially a conventional freefall iron bomb, of which Russia has hundreds of thousands in storage from the Soviet period,”
Judging by that number, Russia will never run out of FABs.
Ukraine did recently target multiple airfields and specifically targeted ammo storage. The photos of the damage show the ammunition warehouse completely destroyed (I forget how many estimated missiles / bombs were destroyed, hundreds at least, perhaps thousands). So while Russia will not run out of bombs overall, it is possible to locally reduce the number. So it’s not as simple as saying whether it’s better to target aircraft or ammunition. It’s easier to hit a warehouse that doesn’t move and will detonate all the ammo if hit.
But… hitting planes and pilots is also important as they are in shorter supply. So if it’s possible to hit Russian planes or deny their ability to get close enough to drop bombs, that would probably have a greater effect in lowering the number of bombs dropped. I don’t know exactly what would work best, F-16s? Patriots? Something else?
It would also help if Ukraine could hit the planes on the ground with things like Taurus / Stormshadow. Russia can’t drop as many bombs if they have to keep planes further back from the front line. That also puts more wear on tear on the planes.
Does anybody know the terminal velocity of one of these things? It can glide approx 50 km so how many seconds from release to detonation?