In the video published by the “iron helmets”, the bomb slides quickly into the section, down towards a building. Then the bomb hits its target. A fireball rises into the air, followed by a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke. The videos have been published by several Russian military bloggers in the past week. They say it is a glide bomb of the FAB-1500 type you see in the video. The bomb is essentially a 1.5 tonne weapon, almost half of which consists of high explosives. Russian Su-34 fighter jets are among the aircraft used to drop the modernized Soviet-era bombs. Photo: AFP The Russian warplanes can release the bomb 60-70 kilometers away from the target. The rest of the way it is controlled remotely through a GPS transmitter. In this way, the bombs end up outside the range of the Ukrainian air force. Videos show the enormous power of the bombs. How they destroy factory buildings and residential buildings. Several of them in areas from which Ukrainian soldiers coordinate their defense, according to the American TV channel CNN – Not all our guys can stand it – It puts a lot of pressure on the soldiers’ morale. Not all our guys can handle it. Although they are more or less used to the FAB-500 now, but the FAB-1500 is hell, a Ukrainian soldier told the TV channel. POWERFUL: An undetonated Russian FAB-500 bomb, the “little brother” of the FAB-1500, in a driveway in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Photo: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Reuters FAB bombs have become an important part of the Russian offensive in the areas around Donetsk. – Before we were only attacked with artillery, he says, but now the Russians are attacking with a greater effort from the air force. – Especially with the FAB-1500. In February, Forbes wrote how Russian fighter jets used 250 glider bombs against Avdiivka in just 48 hours, forcing a Ukrainian mechanized brigade to retreat. The bombing campaign could “harness a change in Russian operations elsewhere along the front line,” according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank. Mass production It was last year that Russia began using a modified type of bomb. They went by the name FAB-500. They were actually old bombs from the Soviet Union that got wings and GPS control. Since Russia also had 1.5 tonnes of bombs in stock, many feared that these too would be modernised. So, “after many months of trial and error,” according to Telegram channel The Figheterbomber, the first FAB-1500 had “precisely” hit its “combat target.” 1500 KILO EXPLOSIVES: A modified Russian bomb with control wings and GPS is displayed on the websites of the state-owned Russian company that sells weapons. Photo: Rosoboroneksport In January, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could be seen inspecting one of the factories of JSC Tactical Missiles Corporation, in the Moscow region. A mechanism for threading the wings on the bomb was shown. The company claimed to have developed “high-precision” munitions that converted old free-falling bombs into weapons that would glide. Now several international media are reporting that Russia is mass-producing parts that make the most powerful of the old, “stupid”, Soviet bombs more modern.
ttn-69
– Not all our guys can stand it – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
