Russia has a deadly new flying bomb

Putin’s pilots fear Ukrainian air defences

The Russian air force has been pummelling Ukrainian troops and civilians with powerful glide-bombs for more than a year now – lobbing more than a hundred of the precision-guided winged munitions every day.
The “KAB” bombs are assembled by taking heavy dumb bombs and strapping on rough-and-ready guided glider modules. Some of the resulting weapons weigh more than three tons and can travel 25 miles or farther on their pop-out wings, allowing the Sukhoi Su-30 and Su-34 fighter-bombers that carry them to stay beyond the range of some Ukrainian air defences.
But not all Ukrainian air defences. And that may explain why the Russian air force is using more and more of a special kind of munition: a powered glide-bomb that has three-fold range advantage over a standard KAB. 
The 1,300-pound, rocket-boosted Grom-E1 flies as far as 75 miles. A Sukhoi deploying a Grom-E1 at the munition’s maximum range should stay beyond the reach of all but Ukraine’s best and rarest air defence systems – its precious American-made Patriots, for instance.
The targets, so far, are civilians. Grom-E1s struck a school and an apartment building in Myrnohrad and Kherson, respectively in February and March. In August, another Grom-E1 exploded in Kharkiv. Most recently, on Oct. 29, a bombing raid involving KABs and at least one Grom-E1 blew up a medical facility and other buildings in Kharkiv, including an historic structure that was under UNESCO protection.
It’s possible the accelerating pace of Grom-E1 raids is a response to the Ukrainian air force’s recent deployment of ex-European Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters. The Western jets are armed with the Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM), which can travel as far as 40 miles. 
The first of up to 85 F-16s arrived in Ukraine this summer – and flew their debut combat sorties in late August. One F-16 crashed during that initial air defence operation, killing its pilot. But more of the nimble jets – and trained pilots for them – arrive every month.
The F-16s pose a serious threat to Russian jets, but only if they can reach the jets with their best missiles. A careful Russian Sukhoi pilot could release a Grom-E1 and turn away before a Ukrainian F-16 pilot could close in for an AMRAAM shot.
The Grom-E1 is one way Russia stays ahead of Ukraine in the aerial arms race raging over the front line of Russia’s 33-month wider war on Ukraine – a war that shows no sign of ending, despite US president-elect Donald Trump vowing to call up Russian president Vladimir Putin and negotiate a resolution.
If there’s any consolation to the outgunned Ukrainians, it’s that Russia’s inventory of Grom-E1s might be limited. The Kremlin has established mass-production of unpowered, rough-and-ready KABs, but it’s not clear there’s been a similar industrial ramp-up for the powered Grom-E1s, which surely cost much more than the KABs do.
That’s cold comfort to the everyday Ukrainians in Kharkiv and other cities who go to bed at night not knowing whether Grom-E1s might bring their roofs down on them. Thousands of Ukrainians have died under Russian bombardment since the Russians invaded in February 2022.
The Ukrainians can shoot back with their own powered glide-bombs: French-made Hammers and a new, locally-made munition that might be a virtual clone of the Hammer. That new bomb was first spotted under the wing of a Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 bomber during a test sortie back in September. Both the French munition and the local clone probably range around 40 miles. Ukraine has also received ex US Navy Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs.
At that range, Ukrainian jets are still within range of Russia’s S-300 and S-400 air defence batteries – and also within range of Russian Sukhoi fighters armed with Vympel R-77 air-to-air missiles. And as much as Russia’s supply of Grom-E1s is limited, Ukraine’s own supply of Hammers is probably even more limited. Paris supplies no more than 50 bombs a month.
All in all, the war of the glide bombs – and rocket-boosted glide bombs – and full-blown cruise and ballistic missiles – is heavily tilted in Russia’s favour. But that’s true of many aspects of the war in Ukraine, and such imbalances have never stopped the Ukrainians fighting back yet.