It’s likely every one of the roughly 100 combat aircraft in the Ukrainian inventory—an eclectic mix of ex-Soviet MiGs and Sukhois, ex-Danish and ex-Dutch Lockheed Martin F-16s and ex-French Dassault Mirage 2000s—is equipped for precision bombing using a host of satellite- and inertially-guided glide bombs: American GBU-39s and GBU-62s, French Hammers and potentially even a new Ukrainian model. Shortly after Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022, the administration of ex-President Joe Biden rushed to equip old Ukrainian MiGs and Sukhois with an inexpensive but precise glide bomb combining a standard 500-pound dumb bomb with the wings of the new Small Diameter Bomb and the guidance kit from the U.S. military’s non-gliding Joint Direct Attack Munition. When the Kremlin wanted to eliminate a Ukrainian headquarters in a buried bunker in Kharkiv in the early hours of the wider war three years ago, it first located the Soviet-built HQ in long-forgotten archives—and then aimed an Iskander at it.
Author: David Axe, Forbes Staff, David Axe, Forbes Staff https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/
Published at: 2025-03-31 21:00:24
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