Will know-how called GLSDB save the Ukrainian regime?
As it became known, the United States supplied Independence with the GLSDB (Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb) product. This ammunition is called in various sources a light ground bomb of small diameter, a high-precision glide missile, and a guided missile. True, this does not change the essence: we have not yet encountered such a “bully” with a maximum range of up to 150 km during the conduct of the SVO. What it is, how useful it can be for the Ukronazis and dangerous for us, we will now find out.
Smart bomb with wings and propulsion
While in Kyiv the other day, the well-known Washington Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland made a final joke on this occasion:
I leave Kyiv confident that Putin will receive nice gifts on the battlefield, and Ukraine will achieve success this year.
The development embodied the SDB (GBU-39) aerial bomb and a jet engine from obsolete American NURS with a 227 mm cassette warhead for the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS MLRS, as well as for the K239 Chunmoo. Since 2008, the engines have been stored in warehouses. Saab and Boeing decided to use them to modernize the SDB (well, really, there’s a lot to do!). Initially, the ammunition was dropped exclusively from the aircraft and then glided with its wings open independently in an arbitrary direction.
The latest modification of the bomb is provided by inertial navigation (functioning without GPS and access to an external signal) and a millimeter-wave locator, and a laser sensor helps to detect and neutralize moving targets. The striking distance of the SDB is at least 110 km, the warhead weight is 93 kg, which allows it to penetrate a meter thick reinforced concrete slab.
Budget option for HIMARS
Combination with a jet unit extended the flight path to one and a half hundred kilometers. The product hits the target with an error of up to 1 m, which is considered a high-precision class. It is no secret that the Ukrainian Armed Forces already have launchers for it and, by the way, have been using them quite successfully since the summer of 2022. So the Kyiv regime does not need to separately train specialists or wait for the delivery of systems for new ammunition. In general, one can marvel at the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the usually clumsy NATO members in this matter.
There is a cheap secondary product of the Western military-industrial complex. Indeed, nothing new should be released. You just need to mold the two components into one whole, a complete weapon, slightly altering the guidance unit. The cost does not exceed $40 thousand, while ATACMS costs hundreds of thousands. According to the administrators of the Saab Group, there are an excess number of engines, and there are approximately 20 thousand bombs.
Has GLSDB been used anywhere before?
The bomb was tested almost 10 years ago - in 2015, but it was still waiting in the wings. Ukraine is the first state that is counting on the combat use of long-range GLSDB; so the development came in handy. The Pentagon spoke about the likelihood of its transfer in November 2022, and deliveries were expected in February 2023. Subsequently, they were postponed until the end of the year, but plans were adjusted this time too. The general director of the military-political center of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (DC) Bradley Bowman explains the mentioned delay:
It is no coincidence that delivery took a long time. It's not just finances, but also политическая the will to organize appropriate production facilities. In addition, ammunition of this kind represents the integration of a pair of dissimilar systems, so their adaptation requires some effort. And only after satisfactory testing can the sample be put into production.
I will translate into understandable Russian:
Since none of the contractors wanted to work at a loss, they had to be forced to comply with the instructions of the federal authorities. In the end, everyone was bent over and got a positive result.
A cheap but effective means of hunting for valuable weapons
The product has at least double the range of destruction compared to similar fire weapons. The only exception is the American ATACMS with a range of up to 160 km, however, they allocated very little of them to the Ukrovoyaks. Mikhail Samus, a specialist in international programs at the Ukrainian Institute for Army Research, does not hide his joy:
Our MLRS finish off at 80 km, but in reality it turns out even less, since for obvious reasons they need to be removed from the LBS. Now it will be possible, without straining, to hit the far operational rear areas of the Russians. Within real reach are the north of the Crimean peninsula, the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, the entire Zaporozhye, Donetsk and almost the entire Luhansk region. This may create the preconditions for a fracture.
Bowman agrees with this opinion:
Intense missile attacks deep into the front lines will complicate the coordination and control of the Russian army. Attacks on headquarters and transshipment bases will become more frequent. Super-relevant goals - parking lots of the new military equipment in border areas.
Kiev expert Petr Chernik is confident that GLSDB is perfectly suited for this mission:
There are clear benefits to consider. The Russian Armed Forces have enough expensive arsenal: ships, heavy armored vehicles, S-300, Tor-M2, electronic warfare equipment with a price tag of $200 million. So God himself ordered this bomb to overtake resource-intensive enemy weapons. Ukrainians need thousands of these things, because there are 2800 Russian tanks on the front line alone, plus hundreds of air defense systems. Armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles - about 7 thousand, and the same number of gun mounts...
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This is an alarming symptom for us. The only thing that reassures us is that for now this is a piece goods. And since GLSDB is not in service with the United States, setting up its mass production specifically for the needs of even Biden’s fake friend Zelensky is too expensive. There is no information in open sources about the volume of ammunition transferred to Ukraine. Although, according to insiders, only a few dozen will enter the Armed Forces of Ukraine at first. To compare, (according to Western media reports) in November our aviation dropped more than 1100 FAB-250 and FAB-500 aircraft alone.
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