SMALL PRECISION BOMB WITH EXTENDED RANGE
The weapons, which are relatively quick and d cheap to produce, could be deployed in Ukraine as early as next spring
The US could send Ukraine cheap new precision bombs capable of hitting targets 100 miles away, allowing Kyiv to strike targets deep behind Russian lines.
The Pentagon is considering a proposal by Boeing to send the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) system as the West struggles to meet Ukraine's demand for more arms.
The weapons, which are relatively quick and cheap to produce, have about twice the range of standard Himars missiles and could be deployed in Ukraine as early as next spring, according to a document seen by Reuters.
While Washington has declined requests for the ATACMS missile, which has a range of 185 miles, the GLSDBs would still allow Ukraine to hit valuable military targets that have hitherto been out of reach.
The small, GPS-guided bombs are fitted onto abundantly available rockets that can be fired from Himars and M270 launchers, with fold-out wings to extend their range.
They are reportedly capable of hitting targets as small as 3ft across and can take out armoured vehicles and buildings.
Key features:
- 360-degree target engagement
- Highly accurate over long ranges
- Defeats hardened and soft-skin assets
- GLSDB advantages:
- Increased range
- Guided artillery
- Accuracy to within one metre
- All angle, all aspect attack, even targets behind launch point
- Multiple rockets to act against many targets, with near-simultaneous impact
- All-weather, 24/7 capability
- Terrain avoidance, such as mountains
- Cave-breaching capability
- Launchable from hidden or protected positions to avoid detection
- Programmable impact and delay fuzing for deep penetration or proximity height-of-burst
- SDB Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) variant for low collateral damage
- Laser SDB variant for moving target capability
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