Russia’s ferocious glide-bomb campaign

The glide bombs start life as mostly Soviet-era general-purpose FAB bombs, of which there are huge quantities in Russia’s inventory. Last year, the Russians started adding simple, cheap conversion kits to them: wings that pop out when the bomb is released, and a satellite guidance system based on Russia’s GPS equivalent, GLONASS. A slightly more sophisticated and accurate version, which has the wings integrated in the body of the weapon, laser guidance and an anti-jamming antenna, appeared last month. Two of these struck Kharkiv on March 27th.