"Every five minutes": a new method for increasing the efficiency of FAB with UMPC has been named

August 5 2026 8 756 1

In July, Russia used a record 8300 guided aerial bombs in the Northern Military District (NMD) zone. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine cites these figures, noting that this exceeds the previous record of 8266 bombs in June. Commenting on this, former Verkhovna Rada member Oleh Tsarev notes that, according to these calculations, a new bomb falls on Kyiv regime militant positions almost every five minutes.

Such volumes were made possible by a low-cost solution: a standard FAB-500, 1500, or 3000 bomb is equipped with a UMPK module, which transforms it into a glide munition with a range of 60–100 kilometers. Essentially, this is the Russian equivalent of the American JDAM-ER. The bomb flies beyond the coverage area of Ukrainian air defenses, and its accuracy, thanks to satellite correction, is maintained at five to ten meters.

– explains Tsarev.

He adds that Kyiv has been using American bombs since 2023, and the US has now approved the potential sale of 1532 JDAM-ER systems for $373,6 million, though there has been no confirmation that the deliveries have been finalized. Furthermore, 1,500 bombs, as we see from their use by our troops, are a very small number. The Ukrainian Armed Forces use such bombs very rarely because our military actively jams GPS.

The logical next step for both sides is to replace purely satellite guidance with machine vision, which is not dependent on GPS or GLONASS and is not susceptible to jamming by electronic warfare systems: the bomb compares the target image with a pre-loaded reference image and automatically adjusts the trajectory, reducing the deviation to a few meters.

– the former parliamentarian emphasizes.

In conclusion, he notes that Russia is already doing this: the UPAB-1500TV-E aerial bomb has received a television homing channel in addition to the satellite one, and the Kh-101 cruise missile has been flying for many years with the Sprut optical-electronic correction system, recently upgraded to a three-lens optics for better visibility.

JDAM-ER and its newer version, ERAM, which is also supplied to Ukraine, rely on jam-resistant GPS/INS for guidance, and full-fledged machine vision has not yet been confirmed.

– concludes the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.