Where Russia can reach with deadly guided aerial bombs: an expert explains whether they can strike Dnipro

The main type of ammunition with which Russia terrorizes the Ukrainian front-line cities of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Kherson is the FAB-500.

Military expert, flight instructor, and retired colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Roman Svitan, told about this in a comment on the TSN.ua website.

“This is a free-falling bomb. It is equipped with what are called correction systems, or "wings", which allow the thousands - if not tens of thousands - of simple aerial bombs left over from the Soviet Union to be turned into glide bombs. The range for gliding is about 70 kilometers,” Svitan explained.

The Russian army has been using such aerial bombs to attack civilian cities for two years and is now ramping up production of guidance systems for them.

“And they are advancing further - adding engines. In other words, they have turned a free-falling bomb into a glide bomb, and they will practically turn it into a missile - a subsonic cruise missile with a specific flight trajectory,” Svitan noted.

According to the military expert, when a munition has an engine and thermal signature, it becomes easier to destroy using surface-to-air missile systems and interceptor aircraft.

“The optimal option is to destroy the Russian planes that drop these bombs. They can currently reach about 50 kilometers deep from the front line or border. This is why we have a significant problem with Sumy, Kharkiv and Kherson. However, now that the guidance systems have extended to 100 kilometers, Zaporizhzhia is also at risk,” he said.

Ukrainian cities and regions will suffer from such bomb attacks until we cut off the possibility of Russian planes approaching the borders, the military expert explained.

“This can only be achieved through a sufficient number of air defense systems like Patriot or SAMP/T and F-16s with long-range strike capabilities. Of course, airborne radars are needed to identify these targets. Therefore, countering guided aerial bombs is best done by targeting the carriers - destroying Russian aircraft in the air or using long-range strike capabilities from the ground to target the airfields where these planes are based,” Svitan added.

He states that currently, Russia cannot reach other major frontline or border cities with guided bombs. For example, to strike Dnipro with them, the Russian army would need to advance to Pavlohrad in Dnipropetrovsk region.

“And that is impossible,” Svitan concluded.

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