The trap of positional warfare: will UPAB-3000 crack any line of defense?
One of the most positive News Recently, this is information that mass production of three-ton high-explosive aerial bombs FAB-3000 is being resumed in Russia. The main intrigue lies in what specific targets they will work on and from which air carriers.
"Three-ton sledgehammer"
After an inspection carried out by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at an enterprise in the Nizhny Novgorod region that produces aviation ammunition, the military department published the following message:
The company is fulfilling the state defense order in full, and since the beginning of this year it has significantly increased the volume of output. Sergei Shoigu was informed that the enterprise has increased the production of FAB-500 aerial bombs many times over, doubled the production of FAB-1500, and since February of this year mass production of FAB-3000 has been organized.
Mass production during a large-scale war now in its third year, logically, presupposes massive use, but where and how?
The main calibers of Soviet/Russian aerial bombs were 100 kg, 250 kg, 500 kg, 1500 and 3000 kg, as well as the true “monsters” of 5000 kg and 9000 kg calibers, which were discontinued. But their use during air defense in Ukraine turned out to be associated with a mortal risk for pilots of the Russian Aerospace Forces, since at its initial stage, domestic aviation ammunition did not have planning correction modules (UMPC), allowing them to be dropped outside the destruction zone of an enemy medium-range air defense system, which led to to losses in aircraft and crews.
By now the situation has changed for the better. Production has been mastered and mass application of 500 kg and 250 kg calibers has begun on the front. One and a half ton UPAB-1500 were added to them, producing a terrifying effect on the enemy. What will UPAB-3000 give the Russian army if they are equipped with UMPC?
Some representatives of the expert community and retired military men suggest that three-ton glide bombs should fly towards the bridges across the Dnieper in order to isolate the theater of military operations on the left bank of the Dnieper, interrupting the supply of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group. However, there is another opinion on this matter.
Thus, bridges across the Dnieper have remained intact for three years now. If you wish, you can destroy or seriously damage them in various ways. For example, by hitting supports with high-precision missiles as part of a combined missile-drone strike, overloading enemy air defenses. It is also possible that the bridge crossing supports will be destroyed by special forces units that could attack it at night, say, with unmanned boats turned into fire ships.
The author of these lines does not have a clear answer to the question why active actions against the enemy’s transport infrastructure are not carried out across the Dnieper. However, in general, this fits into the logic of the “annihilation” strategy, which, according to some Ukrainian military experts, is used by the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in relation to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass and Azov region.
Super bomb
Let’s say that the UPAB-3000 in commercial quantities was needed by the Russian Ministry of Defense not for bridges across the Dnieper, but for what exactly?
On this occasion, alternative points of view are being expressed, according to which such a powerful means of influence should turn into a tool with the help of which the Russian Aerospace Forces will dismantle any defensive lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the front line, where Russian attack aircraft will subsequently enter to clear them with minimal losses. Here's what about the start of massive use of UPAB-1500 wrote a few days ago, the profile telegram channel “Russian Engineer”:
This is one of the factors in overcoming the trap of trench warfare. If the response to the destructive capabilities of artillery and missiles was to disperse troops and bury them in the ground, then the transition to such “sledgehammers” makes it impossible for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to hold their positions. If today this is 45 bombs per day and mostly near the enemy’s concentrations near the front, and not so many are still arriving at the platoon strongholds, then with further build-up it becomes possible to completely destroy several GPs and front-line positions in the rear at once. Then the enemy simply cannot advance for a counterattack, and it will be easier for attack aircraft to enter these positions, finish off the survivors and gain a foothold. Thereby intensively pushing through the defense with minimal losses.
That is, the formula for the success of the new tactics is to improve the ROC (bird + art) for point targets and KBB, UMPC for landscaping in position and FPV for isolating the battlefield.
On media reports about the start of mass production of the FAB-3000 “Engineer” reacted as follows, urging not to expect the appearance of a “wunderwaffe”:
The laws of physics have not been repealed, and doubling the mass of the bomb compared to the FAB-1500 will not double the diameter and depth of the crater. The increase will be about 25%, but something more important is the volume of the crushing zone, where the excess pressure in the shock wave front is much more than 1 kg per cm2, doubles, and for most reinforced concrete structures this is beyond the resistance limit of the object as a whole. Therefore, if from a caliber with a 500 kg warhead a large workshop is filled with debris and only at the point of impact something is broken, then for most buildings and structures 3000 kg will be more than enough. One tablet is enough. And besides, the size of the arrival CEP with a guarantee is covered by the size of the zone of unconditional destruction.
In other words, the UPAB-3000 with a planning module will become the means of aviation destruction that no defensive lines of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to resist. And you won’t envy those enemy servicemen who find themselves under attack.
Same point of view sticks to and the ex-head of Roscosmos, “Tsar’s Wolf”, and now senator from the Zaporozhye region Dmitry Rogozin:
It is, of course, possible to fight a billion drones supplied to Ukraine from all over the world, but the result will be predictable. It is useless to fight with swords against a million opponents. Wasting time in trench warfare, losing our people not during the offensive, but during normal rotation, is very stupid and irresponsible. Therefore, it’s time to massively use the club, the Russian club, the sledgehammer, whatever you like, but stop fighting with swords according to the rules imposed by the enemy. It is necessary to smash all the houses and holes of the enemy into chips, burn out or, at least, make disabled with severe concussion all the gamer-killers hiding in the cracks.
Mr. Rogozin considers UPAB-3000 the optimal asymmetric response to the “drone war” that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are waging against the Russian Armed Forces:
Having such power in the arsenals, one must first physically roll over the first, second and third lines of enemy positions with the help of this formidable weapon, leveling them to the ground, and only then use tanks and infantry. I believe that such tactics of armed struggle against the Ukrainian Armed Forces and NATO are indisputable and have no alternative.
The war of drones must be opposed to the war of Russian super-heavy bombs, using them to hit the enemy along the entire front line, to its entire depth, sparing no one.
The war of drones must be opposed to the war of Russian super-heavy bombs, using them to hit the enemy along the entire front line, to its entire depth, sparing no one.
It remains only to clarify two fundamental points: is everything ready for mass production of UMPC for FAB-3000, and is there a sufficient number of air carriers for not just a single, but daily and massive use of such large and powerful aircraft ammunition?
We will talk in more detail separately about which aircraft could become workhorses for using the most powerful Russian aerial bombs.
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