Russia’s war against Ukraine has taken several forms when it comes to hitting Ukraine with air attacks. The entire arsenal of Russian air-launched weapons, ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched land attack missiles have been employed.
Russia’s Glide Bombs Create Carnage in Ukraine
But most recently, the Russians began to employ heavy tonnage glide bombs. Resembling some of the United States glide bomb kits of 20-30 years ago, these weapons began appearing, using “fold-out” wings to extend their range.
A year ago, Russian Air Force fighter-bombers were dropping a hundred of these glide bombs every day along the 800-mile front line of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The peak of their use was during one single week in September 2024. Over this period, Russia reportedly dropped more than 900 glide bombs along the front line, blowing “holes” in the Ukrainian defenses that Russian units would then try to exploit.
Ukraine had almost no means to defend itself against these long-range weapons at the time. The consequences were devastating to the Ukrainian units struck by these weapons.
At the time, these glide bombs were equipped with high-technology chips that powered their guidance systems. They were described as Russia’s “miracle weapon.” These glide bombs were used against strategically valuable Ukrainian targets. These were not only front-line installations that, once wiped out, would allow the Russians to advance on targets like logistics facilities or command headquarters units.
Similar to the Boeing JDAM and JDAM-ER munitions, these Russian UMPK (Унифицированный модуль планирования и коррекции), or Unified Gliding and Target Correction bombs. They were equipped with fold-out wings and used satellite-aided navigation aids to guide them to target. These were, however, fitted with a greater payload than comparable US systems. Each one of the Russian bombs weighed as much as three tons.
Jammed at the Source
A year later, Russia’s glide bombs have little impact on the battlefield. The reason is that Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) firms have proven highly adept at developing electronic countermeasures (ECM).
“Previously, the enemy used glide bombs with high accuracy to attack objects in the territory of regional centers such as Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia,” a Ukrainian defense enterprise told the US publication Forbes.
The ECM system the Ukrainians have developed is called LIMA. It is not a traditional type of jammer that transmits noise or other traditional jamming signals towards an enemy weapon system.
“We use digital interference,” the manufacturer explained. This hybrid system is “a combination of jamming, spoofing, and information cyber-attacking against the navigation receiver.”
“After the deployment of the ECM system, the accuracy of the bombings first begain to decrease. Then, realizing the ineffectiveness of this method of destruction and the impossibility of achieving their goal, the enemy stopped bombing regional targets altogether,” the manufacturer explained.
The Electronic Wall
Once the Russians discovered their glide bombs did not work on deep strikes or regional targets, they continued attacking with glide bombs against positions on the front line. Their tactic was to first attack with a glide bomb, and once they had created a gap in the Ukrainian defenses, they would launch an infantry assault to push through.
This methodology helped the Russians take the fortress city of Avdiivka and then advance to Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. However, at a certain point, the Russians realized that something had changed, and their weapons were ineffective. “The golden era of the divine UAB has passed,” read one Ukrainian publication.
Ukrainian jammers have now managed to reduce bombings in certain areas. There were even incidents when the Russians dropped glide bombs and ended up attacking themselves. Sometimes, the bombs did not even fall on the territory of Ukraine but instead landed inside Russia or on Russian positions in the Ukraine territory that Moscow’s forces have temporarily occupied.
“One of the Russian weaknesses that never goes away,” said another Ukrainian EW firm that spoke to 19FortyFive. “Is they seem to think they are still in Syria or Chechnya or in some African country—some place where the enemy has no technical skills and no way to fight back within the electromagnetic spectrum.
TU-22M3M Bomber. Image from Russian Military.
“So, when we in Ukraine—the people that know more about precision munitions than even they do—start neutralizing their systems they do not know what to do. It is the arrogance and their inability to adapt on the battlefield as quickly as we do that is allowing us to beat them every time.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
