100-mile US glide bombs fail in Ukraine

Verity Bowman
Fri, April 26, 2024


Much-vaunted US-supplied glide bombs given to Ukraine “didn’t work” due to a combination of mud and Russian signal jamming, the Pentagon has admitted.

The long-range weapons, which were not officially named but have been identified online as Boeing’s Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), were sent to Ukraine to help them hit targets at twice the distance reachable by current rockets.

The delivery of the adapted bombs to Ukraine in late January was met with widespread enthusiasm, with military experts suggesting it could force Russia to relocate supplies farther from the front lines.

But William LaPlante, the Pentagon’s weapon’s acquisition chief, said: “We sent it to the Ukrainians. It didn’t work. It didn’t work for multiple reasons including EMI [Electromagnetic interference] environment, just really, dirt, and doing it on ground.”

“When you send something to people in the fight of their lives that doesn’t work, they’ll try it three times and then just throw it aside,” he added at an event at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

A precision-guided bomb with a 100-mile range, the GLSDB attaches to an M26 rocket and is cheaper than the current limited number of Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets the US has sent.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/100-mile-us-glide-bombs-122641583.html

-Note that each failure costs $40 000 and carries a 35 - 51lb explosive charge.

Meanwhile.... the Russian version which involves strapping a kit to old Soviet FAB ammunition at a conversion cost of about half that:$21 000...seems to be a genuine gamechanger and by comparison it carries a 1000-3300lb explosive charge... Which makes the US thing (when it works...)look like a peashooter.

-Yet another Western Boutique Military Industrial success story...lots of money for no results.
Do we need to wait & see what they do with all the lovely Lolly the paranoid europeans are guaranteeing to give them?

K