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New Russian gliding bomb market
The UPAB-1500B-E gliding bomb. © Nikolai Novichkov
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The KAB-1500LG-F-E guided bob unit. © Nikolai Novichkov
By Nikolaï Novichkov and Dmitry Fediushko
Russian defence industry has entered the international heavy gliding bomb market, a spokesperson for the country’s Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV) told European Defence Review. “Previously KTRV was investing in the KAB-1500E family of guided bomb units (GBUs); at the same time, modern warfare requires cutting-edge GBUs to be employed against sensitive targets protected by sophisticated multi-layered air defence systems,” said the company representative.
To this end, KTRV’s GNPP Region research-and-manufacturing company has developed the UPAB-1500B-E (‘E’ for Export-oriented, Eksportnaya) 1,500 kg-class gliding smart bomb that can carry out strikes at safe ranges. The UPAB-1500B-E has already been introduced to the global arms market. The company has already signed export contracts for the delivery of the UPAB-1500B-E to foreign customers, with the shipping to be started next year. According to the manufacturer, the UPAB
1500B-E gliding GBU is designed to engage ground and surface hardened and super-hardened targets. Weighing 1,525 kg, the bomb has been fitted with a 1,010 kg high-explosive concretepiercing warhead. The munition is 5.05 meters long and has a diameter of 0.40 meters. The bomb can be dropped by an aircraft from an altitude of up to 15 km. The UPAB-1500B-E carries a combined guidance system that integrates an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a satellite navigation receiver providing a CEP of 10 meters according to company data. The GBU’s warhead is coupled to a contact fuse with three time-delay modes. The Indian Air Force (IAF) now operates a large fleet of Su-30MKIs: the military service reports the fielding of more than 250 such aircraft, the Flanker-H being thus the IAF’s main combat platform. At the same time, India is not reported to drop heavy GBUs by its Su-30MKIs. On 26 February 2019, 12 IAF Dassault Aviation Mirage-2000 fighter jets unexpectedly entered the Pakistani airspace and stroke a training camp of the Jaishe-Mohammed, designated as a terror group by the United Nation. The air team was supported by four Su-30MKIs; however, the strikes were conducted by Mirage-2000s, which dropped six non-Russian 2000 lb (900 kg) guided bombs. India claims that the munitions allowed to successfully eliminate their target killing approximately 300 terrorists or so; however, there is a lack of any objective info regarding such high losses. In June 2019 the IAF signed a further contract for the acquisition of some 100 GBUs of the same type under an urgent operational requirement. To day the main combat asset of the IAF, namely the Su-30MKI, is not known to carry any heavy smart bomb. Regarding recent New Delhi’s efforts in the field of air forces building and air fleet unification, it is the Flanker-H, which bears the burden of the service. Therefore, the aircraft needs an effective heavy air-launched penetration asset capable of hardened target destruction: the Su-30 MKI is armed with guided bombs only, not gliding munitions. In January 2018 local media reported that the Indian Ministry of Defence would acquire over 200 KAB-1500 1,500 kg GBUs. Considering the above-mentioned fact that it is the Su-30MKI which forms the backbone of the IAF, India’s MoD raises issues of its deep modernization on a regular basis. Last July, IAF Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa confirmed in an interview with the Russian newspaper Red Star the military service’s intention to upgrade Flanker-Hs. Citing Dhanoa’s successor, IAF Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, Indian media said the modernisation would envisage integration of new avionics, radar, and air-launched weapons (including precision-guided munitions). Therefore, one can suppose that the substantially upgraded Su-30MKI could be capable of using cutting-edge Russian-designed guided bombs, including the UPAB-1500B-E, K08BE, and KAB-250LG-E, which were unveiled at the MAKS-2019 aerospace show last August. Following the aforementioned air raid against a terrorists’ camp in near Balakot, IAF top officers insisted on the necessity of a Su-30MKI upgrade which should include the integration of new guided munitions within its armament suite. The acquisition of the UPAB-1500B-E under the proposed Su-30MKI deep update programme seems to be a logical step for India. The bomb can be fully integrated in the deeply modernised Flanker-H’s subsystems with no glitches, reducing integration costs, which adds to the lower acquisition cost increasing its cost-effectiveness ratio - a key parameter nowadays. Russianmade cutting-edge air-launched munitions demonstrated their ease of use, allowing even green-grass pilots graduated from a flight school with no D marks in their diplomas to deadly effectively destroy targets. However the main point is that the UPAB-1500B-E adoption on Flanker-H fighters would pave to the IAF a way to a new peak of operational performance: dropping new-generation and effective gliding GBUs from its most numerous platform. The combat capabilities of the Mirage-2000 remain rather limited even after the fighter’s upgrade: its almost 30 year-old airframe is rapidly ageing and there is no screwdriver to fix the issue. The integration of the UPAB-1500B-E gliding GBU seems to be the simplest way to turn the Su-30MKI into a formidable stand-off weapon.
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