Defense industry news March 9: Russia puts into service new glide bomb system. Russian media confirms information based on images of Su-34 aircraft.
Russia puts into service new glide bomb system; US Air Force combat readiness level drops to record low are the contents of the defense industry news on March 9.
Russia puts into service new glide bomb system
A photo of the Russian heavy bomber (FAB-500M62) with a new planning and correction module (UMPK) with a longer range has been released.
In the clip, broadcast on the Telegram channel Aviahub, four new-generation glide bombs were installed under the wings of a Su-34 fighter-bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces. They were prepared for an airstrike on the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Earlier, Aviahub published a photo of the cockpit of a Russian military aircraft on the first day of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.
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| Precision glide bomb equipped with UMPK module. Photo: Lenta |
The UMPK module was created to convert multiple conventional bombs into smart guided bombs, while increasing the missile's flight range by tens of kilometers. After leaving the aircraft's weapons bay, the module mounted on the bomb will open its wings and direct the bomb to predetermined coordinates thanks to the installed inertial system with GPS satellite signal correction feature.
Combining the FAB bomb with the UMPC module increases the bomb's destructive power many times over, allowing the bomb to be powerful enough to flatten enemy fortified structures.
Russian military expert, retired Colonel Viktor Baranets, in a conversation with Sputnik, highly appreciated the high efficiency of the FAB-1500 deployed against the Ukrainian army. According to him, the appearance of these smart bombs allows Russian pilots to operate without penetrating enemy lines.
The New York Times on January 10 quoted a Ukrainian official as saying: "Russian glide bombs are effectively attacking Ukrainian positions, even penetrating some underground bunkers and posing a significant threat to the military."
US Air Force combat readiness falls to record low
The combat readiness of US Air Force fighter jets has dropped to a record low, Defense News reported. Journalists came to this conclusion based on an analysis of available data.
Experts say that just over six out of 10 US Air Force aircraft will be able to complete a mission within a day in 2024. “The overall fleet mission readiness is 62 percent, the lowest in recent memory,” the report says. Experts link this to the obsolescence of some parts of the fleet.
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| The combat capability of the US Air Force has been greatly reduced due to lack of upgrades. Photo: Defense News |
Experts also emphasized that the US Air Force consists of 5,025 military aircraft of all types, "A mission readiness rate of 62% means that at any given time, there will be about 1,900 military aircraft out of service." The largest number of aircraft in the US Air Force is currently the C-17 Globemaster, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter.
“Readiness is often a lagging indicator,” said Heather Penny, a former F-16 pilot and senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, who said the situation could get worse by 2025. Penny concluded that the Air Force’s current predicament is largely due to a lack of major upgrades to the aircraft.
On March 6, the Pentagon confirmed that the suspension of all forms of US military aid to Ukraine had taken effect. The decision to halt deliveries also applies to weapons already on their way to Ukraine.
US explains the effectiveness of Iskander missiles on the Ukrainian battlefield
In the recent attack on a Ukrainian test site, the Iskander-M missile system operated in coordination with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The reasons for the success of the attack by Russia's "lethal system" were assessed by Brandon Weichert, an expert writing for The National Interest (TNI) magazine.
According to expert Brandon Weichert, the range of the Iskander-M missile is no more than 310 miles (500 km), but the Russian military can double that number. “The speed of these missile systems is hypersonic, reaching about Mach 6-7. These missiles have a circular error probability (CEP) of 16-22 feet (5-7m) in optical guidance mode and a CEP of about 98-229 feet (30-70m) in autonomous mode."
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| Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile. Photo: Rian |
Brandon Weichert noted that the Iskander-M can carry various types of warheads, in particular high-explosive fragmentation warheads, cluster munitions, bunker-buster warheads, as well as electromagnetic pulse and nuclear weapons. “The fact that Russia transports these weapons on the MZKT-7930 chassis means that they are highly mobile. Each launcher carries two missiles that Russian forces can launch one minute apart and they are guided to the target independently of each other,” the TNI expert recalled.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported an attack on the Novomoskovsk training center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
Izvestia newspaper quoted a source from the Russian Ministry of Defense as saying that reconnaissance UAVs, especially Forpost, are being used to guide Iskander-M tactical missile systems, enabling them to strike quickly and accurately.
Source: https://congthuong.vn/nga-dua-vao-trang-bi-he-thong-bom-luon-moi-377432.html
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