The half-tone hit the house, where there were six of our boys – a medical lifeguard working on the Donetsk front section told me last spring. There was no 1 to help... “The man said that the building was destroyed and that colleagues died under the rubble. In specified circumstances, thousands of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU) have already fallen, and others inactive give their lives. But there have been less victims for weeks, due to the fact that Ukrainian engineers have found a way to kill KAB gliders. This is simply a WRE tool (radio-electronic combat) called "Lima".
Before I compose about “Lima”, let's go back to the earlier phase of the conflict. erstwhile it took the form of a full-scale war, the tactical impotence of Russian aviation came to light. For the first respective months it was a large absentee on the battlefield. The saturation of anti-aircraft weapons – mainly portable short-range rocket launchers – made the (at)front region highly dangerous for aircraft. And the deficiency of far-reaching and precise ammunition highlighted the problem. As a result, Russian land troops had to cope without crucial air support.
Until the Russians came up with the thought of creative usage of old aerial bombs. The high-risk necessity of dropping loads over the mark – within OPL fire scope – was eliminated by retrofitting bombs with wings and a simple navigation system. That's how KABs were made, dropped off planes far behind the front line. They have a scope of up to 70 km (if released from a tallness of 12,000 m) and decision by a sliding flight, aiming at pre-programmed coordinates.
Risk of major breaks
The first reports of Russians utilizing KABs came in the summertime of 2023. A twelve weeks later, Russian aviation was swarming for good, which, close Awdijiwa – which was fought for hard at the time – took the form of impunity, a completely fresh quality for this conflict. The Russians dropped 3,000 KABs a month, weighing from half a ton to a half. Any 1 of these bombs could have killed dozens of soldiers. And she frequently killed by making tiny but many breaches in Ukrainian defensive lines. As this posed a hazard of a more severe breach, the command of the ZSU decided to take a drastic step – Western anti-aircraft launchers were sent to the front, so far mainly utilized to defend Kiev.
The ZSU retreat from Awdijiwa in February 2024 was shielded by 1 of the most effective/best OPL systems at the disposal of the Ukrainian army. Most likely via Patriots or SAMP/Ts, capable of damaging targets over 100 km. As a result, 4 Russian Su-34/35 aircraft were shot down and later (still in February), no longer associated with the Awdijiwaka battles, another 2 machines. All of them carriers of glider bombs.
Destruction following a Russian air strike utilizing a bomb directed at Zaporozhye, Ukraine 21 March 2025.
"Cabing" (as the Russians call raids utilizing KABs) has lost momentum for any time. Unfortunately, the failure of 1 of the systems and the fact that the power of the capital OPL was weakened forced the Ukrainians to retreat the launcher from the front zone. erstwhile again, the hardware “short covers”, the top nightmare of the Ukrainian army. KABs began to massively demolish Ukrainian defensive lines on their return.
A thorn in the eye of the Russians
Another way to halt this devastation was to usage aviation. Due to the equipment quality imbalance, this option became available only erstwhile Ukrainians received F-16 aircraft. The first real effects were recorded at the beginning of this year. While inactive in November and December 2024 the Russians dropped up to 130–140 KABs per day, 10 times less gliders were arriving at Ukrainian positions at the turn of January and February that year. Apart from another factors I will mention, it was due to the “sixteens” and their expanding presence over the fighting areas. KAB glides 50–70 km away, which means that the plane dropping the bomb must enter the F-16 rocket field if this is besides located in the front zone. respective photographs of Ukrainian “efs” show that they fly mainly in land military support missions, but besides carry “air-to-air” weapons. To put it plainly, the Russians were frightened of them (which is confirmed by their relation with the “that” side) and reduced the number of bomb missions.
But nothing lasts forever. F-16 – especially operating in the front region – are a thorn in the eye of Russians. The hunt for “sixteen” is 1 of the precedence tasks for the Russian army, culminating in success on 12 April. In the area of Sum – north of which the fighting is taking place – the Ukrainian device was shot down. 26-year-old Captain Pawlo Ivanov (posthumously promoted to major) died. Unofficial information shows that for respective days all Ukrainian "efs" were grounded, it is not known how many and to what degree they returned to their tasks. In any case, the thinness of Ukrainian resources, the Ukrainian Air Force has about 20 F-16s, each single failure is simply a serious weakening of potential.
The farther, the little efficient
This shortage is besides revealed in the 3rd way in which KABs are combated. The hazard can be eliminated ‘baseline’, attacking airports and warehouseswhere bomb carriers are stationed and ammunition supplies are stored.
Such strikes can be performed with long-range drones – and in this respect Ukrainians have many possibilities. It is worse – or was actually – with precise rocket missiles, gross targets over a distance of respective 100 kilometres – fired from the ground platform ATACMS- and airborne missiles maneuvering Storm Shadow/SCALP. Ukrainians had not adequate of them (or had no at all) erstwhile it was possible to inflict serious losses on Russians. Now that the Russian air force has searched the airfields by 400 km from the front, these missiles will not endanger him.
The situation could be changed by German Taurus – missiles flying at a distance of up to 500 km – but those in Ukraine are not there. possibly there will be – specified hopes are given by Friedrich Merz's declarations, but this 1 has problems taking over the office of Chancellor of Germany. Tauruses are so at best a song of the future, and the Russians will most likely escape further as shortly as Berlin agrees to their transfer. Of course, this would besides be a benefit – the more Russian aircraft depart from Ukraine, the little their operational capabilities will be. The flight over the region reduces effective mission time, forces more fuel to be taken at the expense of bombs.
Relief? I hope as long as possible.
And so we come to the 4th way to combat the KABs – to disrupt their navigation and targeting systems so that they halt functioning decently and bombs get off course. “Lima” mentioned at the outset serves this purpose. Never head the complicated method details – it is adequate to say that the device suppresses and falsifies signals reaching the bomb control module in respective ways. As a result, satellite navigation (based on GPS/GLONASS) and KAB is "indicted" to usage the inertial navigation strategy (INS). This allows you to proceed to fly towards the target, but is prone to expanding errors over time. The longer a flight without a satellite correction, the greater the deviation, reaching up to 100 m in case of interference for 100 seconds.
Disadvantages? If the jammer had a larger range, they could ‘fool’ the control module longer. KABs are flying at over 340 m/s. At the "Lima" range, which according to different sources is 30–40 km, this gives three–four minutes of effective impact. If a 250–500 kg bomb deviates from the course by 100 m, it will not hit, and with a advanced probability it will not kill those whom it intended to kill. But with 1.5- and three-ton bombs, the precision request is not so crucial – half of their mass is simply a titanium, the detonation of which causes an impact wave of hundreds of meters. So even the "shot" three-tone KAB is inactive dangerous. Fortunately, Russian capacity to carry the heaviest bombs is limited (the number and method parameters of available aircraft). Ukrainian positions are mainly loaded with 250–500 kilos. However, it is worth knowing that they, too, “fooled”, can do harm by exploding in random places. No defence strategy is perfect, which does not change the fact that the Russians now have the KABs uphill. And Ukrainian soldiers on the front line are relieved. As long as possible...
