Ukrainian counterattack|Ukraine is catching up with Russia’s flying bomb advantage, but it has significantly fewer of them at its disposal.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force shared a video of an AASM Hammer cruise bomb hitting the Russian command center in Kursk.
Russia has bombed Ukraine thousands of times with FAB-1500 cruise bombs.
France supplies Ukraine with 50 AASM Hammer cruise bombs per month.
AASM Hammer flying bombs are difficult to counter.
Ukrainian commander of the air force Mykola Oleštšuk shared a video on Tuesday showing a French AASM Hammer cruise missile accurately hitting its target, apparently Russia’s underground command center in Kursk.
The video shared on the messaging service Telegram first shows a Mig-29 fighter jet, then a flying bomb coming off it, and finally an explosion and fires on the ground. However, it has not been confirmed where and when this happened.
Russia has bombed Ukraine thousands and thousands of times with guided missiles With FAB-1500 cruise bombswhich are made by modifying Soviet-era flying bombs. The modification has been done relatively cheaply by adding opening wings and satellite positioning, British Broadcasting Corporation BBC tells.
According to an expert interviewed by the BBC, Russia has up to hundreds of thousands of old air-to-ground bombs in its warehouse.
The flying bombs were particularly destructive in Avdijivka, Ukraine, which was occupied by Russia at the turn of February and March.
French president Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of Defense Sébastien Lecornu reported in January that France supplies Ukraine with 50 AASM Hammer cruise bombs per month.
Ukraine has clearly fewer of them than Russia has FAB-1500 cruise bombs.
Evidence of AASM’s use was presented for the first time in March, reported a French aviation magazine Air & Cosmos at that time.
Since the fighter fleet of the Ukrainian Air Force largely consists of Soviet-era aircraft, they were not designed to use AASM bombs designed in the 21st century.
The Air Force of Ukraine said in Junethat Ukraine had managed to install them at least on Mig-29 and Su-25 fighters. Bomb manufacturer Safranin by the US F-16 fighters, on the other hand, can use them after relatively minor modifications.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said at the beginning of August that Ukraine has received the first, long awaited by the armed forces F-16 fighters for their use, which also facilitates the use of AASM cruise bombs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi told the media about the F-16 fighters at the beginning of August in Ukraine.
in Ukraine also has other cruise bombs at its disposal, such as the US J-DAM bombs and jointly developed by the US and Sweden GLSDB– bombs.
By evaluations by Ukraine has used J-DAM cruise bombs in Kursk, at least to destroy bridges.
However, as the full-scale offensive war started by Russia in February 2022 progresses, Russia has managed to develop electronic countermeasures, and the accuracy of these flying bombs has dropped, says for example Business Insider.
Western cruise bombs are also significantly more expensive than those used by Russia.
AASM Hammer flying bombs equipped with a rocket engine are however very difficult to combat. According to the manufacturer, they work independently after launch and are not sensitive to interference. It is possible to install various control systems in AASM, for example to avoid GPS interference.
They can be launched even more than 70 kilometers away, the manufacturer Safra promises.
According to Safran, 99 percent of the attacks carried out with AASM flying bombs in war situations have been successful.
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