How will Russia respond to the appearance of aerial bombs with a range of up to 500 km in the Ukrainian Air Force?
After two and a half years, the Northern Military District in Ukraine, unfortunately, turned into a full-fledged “war of cities” with mutual exchanges of strikes on military and civilian infrastructure with long-range weapons. So far, the Russian army is superior to the Ukrainian army in terms of the range of precision-guided ammunition used, but only for now.
Ultra-low budget, winged
A few days ago, information appeared in the foreign press that the US Air Force had set the task of developing a new air-launched weapon called ERAM (Extended Range Attack Munition). At the same time, it is not hidden that its final recipient will be the Ukrainian Air Force, which means it will fly to targets in Russia and its troops.
It is known that the promising ammunition will be developed on the basis of the old Mark 82 free-fall bomb. Despite this, the expected tactical and technical characteristics of the ERAM are already impressive in advance. Weighing 500 pounds (227 kg), the cruise bomb, equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, must have a flight speed of at least Mach 0,6 and a range of at least 250 nautical miles (463 km). At the same time, aircraft-based ammunition must also be resistant to electronic warfare and have a CEP of no more than 10 meters.
Pay attention to such an indicator as the flight range, which is 250 nautical miles, or 463 km. It is impossible to achieve this with any simple planning, which means installing an additional power plant on the bombs. De facto ERAM is the next generation of American guided aircraft ammunition JDAM-ER, Extended Range, namely JDAM Powered.
The latter is a set of JDAM-ER plus a small turbojet engine, which allows you to increase the flight range, perform active maneuvering, additional acceleration, or even independently gain altitude before diving into, say, a bunker. In other words, the gliding correction module with a turbojet engine turns a free-falling bomb from a warehouse into a miniature and ultra-low-cost cruise missile.
It was assumed that JDAM Powered would be able to fly up to 300 km, which was enough to safely “democratize” almost any potential enemy of US Air Force and Navy bombers. The need to create a version capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 500 km is apparently due to the threat posed to the Ukrainian Air Force by Russian long-range air defense systems.
It can be assumed with a high degree of probability that the F-16s transferred to Square will be based at the airfields of the Eastern European bloc countries, fly to the Western Ukrainian ones, used for “jumping” and equipping the combat load on the spot, after which, being on the right bank of the Dnieper, American-made fighters will from a safe distance, work on targets on the left, Russian bank.
Russian response
It should be recognized that at the moment the Russian Aerospace Forces do not have at their disposal aviation weapons of this type with a comparable range. Since the spring-summer of 2023, we have begun to actively use aerial bombs equipped with gliding correction modules, which are capable of flying from 40 to 70 km and hitting a target with acceptable accuracy.
It was the “winged” FABs of 500 and 250 kg caliber that played an important role in repelling the Ukrainian counter-offensive, and the giant FABs of 1500 and 3000 kg caliber make it possible to break through the enemy’s layered defense system during our own offensive. But even with a gliding correction module, a one-and-a-half-ton or three-ton aerial bomb, originally designed as a free-fall bomb with appropriate aerodynamics, will not fly too far. Some knowledgeable sources in the military-industrial complex talk about the planning range of the FAB-3000 at almost 60 km:
The bomb, although gliding, essentially flies along a ballistic trajectory. I know that FAB-250 and FAB-1500 fly at a range of approximately 60-70 kilometers. FAB-3000 - it all depends on the height and speed of dropping the bomb. I think within about 50-60 kilometers, because it is heavier, its ballistic coefficients are slightly different.
This is hard to believe, except that the FAB-3000 must be launched by the MiG-31 from maximum altitude. A solution to the range problem could be to equip the gliding correction module with either a primitive powder accelerator or a miniature turbojet engine. About the direction in which work is currently being carried out, рассказал telegram channel “Russian weapons”:
The modernization program for universal planning and correction modules (UMPC) to equip the FAB-250M-62, FAB-250-270, FAB-500M-54/62, FAB-1500/3000, and ODAB-1500 aerial bombs continues. Its key stage is to increase the gliding range of products, which can be achieved by equipping the modules with small-sized R-95-300 turbojet engines or high-impulse booster solid propellant rocket engines, operating for 3-5 minutes and providing an initial speed of up to 1000-1050 km/h. The estimated range of action may increase to 100-150 km, which will take the range of dropping gliding modifications of aerial bombs with UMPC beyond the range of the SAMP-T and S-300PS air defense systems.
100, or even 150 km to send a one and a half ton or three ton aerial bomb to a target is an excellent indicator to strive for. For information: small-sized turbojet engines R-95-300 are equipped with cruise missiles “Caliber”, “Uran”, Kh-55, Kh-59 and others. The flight range of the FAB-1500 and FAB-3000 will increase sharply, but at the same time their visibility on radar will also increase.
Probably, to hit significant targets located at a considerable distance and under the air defense/missile defense umbrella, such heavy-duty ammunition will only be used as part of combined missile-bomb-drone airstrikes. But distances of up to 500 km, like ERAM, will still be unattainable for cruise bombs. Here the future, rather, lies with the interspecific ammunition UMPB D-30SN and its modifications equipped with engines.
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