- Russia is gearing up toward production of a new glide bomb, state media says.
- These weapons are hard to intercept and have proven to be a headache for Ukrainian forces.
- The new bomb will reportedly have cluster munition capabilities, potentially making it extra deadly.
Russia is moving closer toward being able to field new glide bombs, powerful weapons that have proven to be a headache for Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.
Rostec, a state-owned defense manufacturer, announced that it will start serial production of the new 'Drel' bomb sometime this year; it recently passed all of its tests. The warheads are also being developed, Rostec said through Russia's state-run TASS news agency in a Tuesday report.
Work on the new glide bomb was first announced in 2016, and it "is expected to be virtually undetectable on radar," TASS reported, adding that it's "designed to destroy armored vehicles, ground-based radar stations, power plant control centers, and anti-aircraft missile systems."
Unlike conventional gravity bombs, glide bombs have flight control surfaces that allow attacking aircraft to release them at a distance from the target as opposed to directly above it, limiting the aircraft's exposure to adversary air-defense systems, like those that have prevented Russia and Ukraine from achieving air superiority during the war.
These types of munitions are difficult to intercept due to their short flight times and small radar signature. Ukraine's air force has repeatedly voiced concerns over Russia's glide bombs, asserting that while they may lack quality, they are still very capable of causing problems.
It's unclear to what extent, if at all, the new glide bombs will be an improvement over some of the cruder versions.
Russian and Western sources and analysts say the new bomb is a type of cluster munition, according to Reuters and the Kyiv Independent, meaning it can break apart mid-flight and scatter smaller bomblets over a wide area.
Throughout the war, both Russia and Ukraine have used these types of weapons, which are banned by a majority of countries due to their indiscriminate nature and potential to leave behind unexploded ordnance.
Russian state media said the new bomb can fly independently and open up at the "right moment," suggesting it may, indeed, have cluster capabilities. "If the destructive element does not work on a given target, it will self-destruct after a certain time and will not pose a danger to the population after the cessation of hostilities," TASS claimed.
Cluster capabilities in a glide bomb would not necessarily be a new development for the Russian military.
The British defense ministry noted in a late-November intelligence update that there was a realistic possibility that Russia had integrated stand-off glide kits with its 1,100-pound RBK-500 cluster bomb, as it'd done with other air-dropped munitions.
"Russia's glide bomb kits have generally achieved poor accuracy," the intelligence update read, presenting an assessment that falls in line with what the Ukrainian air force has said. However, if a bomb releases a large number of submunitions it increases the odds that an intended target will suffer a significant amount of damage.
At the same time, such a weapon could also damage unintended targets. Ukraine has previously accused Russia of striking homes and schools.
Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank assessed in early December that Russia was increasingly relying on glide bombs to strike Ukrainian targets. But a few weeks later, the analysts wrote that Moscow had decreased its use of the bombs after Kyiv shot down several of Russia's warplanes, specifically Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft.
"Russian forces reportedly use glide bomb strikes so that Russian aircraft can remain 50 to 70 kilometers behind the line of combat engagement," ISW's experts wrote in a Dec. 24 update. They explained that "the decreased Russian use of glide bombs suggests that Russian forces are concerned about Ukrainian air defense capabilities following recent losses."