Add The New York Post on Google Ukraine has developed its first home-made guided aerial bomb, which is capable of striking deep into Russia and ready for combat use, Kyiv’s military chief said.
Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov debuted the Vyrivniuvach bomb on Monday with the country’s Brave1 defense platform, hailing the weapon as a Ukrainian innovation with a third of the cost of its American counterpart.
“Ukraine’s guided aerial bomb will soon be striking enemy targets,” Fedorov said in a statement. “We are scaling solutions that extend strike range, enhance precision, and change the rules of modern warfare.”
Kyiv pilots are currently experimenting with Ukraine’s new guided bomb system to use for deep strikes against Russia. Ukrainian Military YouTube The guided aerial bomb (GAB) is essentially a bomb equipped with targeting and aerodynamic control systems that allow for long-range, accurate strikes while the firing aircraft remains safe away from enemy lines.
Russia has often used GABs to bombard Ukraine, with Kyiv engineers spending the last 17 months developing their own variant of the weapon in revenge for the Kremlin assaults, the defense ministry said.
The Ukrainian bombs are equipped with a 551-pound warhead and capable of reaching dozens of miles into Russia, with the military already ordering a batch for use in the war.
With pilots currently practicing combat scenarios with the weapon, the defense ministry said it won’t be long before the GABs are used.
The Vyrivniuvach bomb was developed and built in Ukraine, with officials saying its production was a fraction of the cost of similar weapons used by other countries, including the US. Ukrainian Military YouTube The GABs can be used at any time of day, in any weather, with preparations to fire taking less than 30 minutes, according to Brave1 officials.
The development of the bombs is allegedly around a third of the cost of a single American Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) — which goes for about $66,000 — without sacrificing the range, Ukrainian officials said.
Fedorov touted the relatively quick turn around for the GABs, noting that Ukraine was now focused on developing more home-grown weapons to fight back the Russian invasion.
“Ukraine is shifting from importing individual solutions to building indigenous high-tech weapons that systematically enhance the capabilities of the Defense Forces and provide technological superiority on the battlefield,” he said.
