Ukraine Fires JDAM-ER Standoff Bombs from Su-27 Jets

Ukrainian Su-27 fighters are firing 2,000-pound JDAM-ER standoff bombs at Russian targets with launch specifications fed before the aircraft takes off.

Despite the Su-27 being capable of carrying Western bombs on the hardpoints, it is still not capable of in-flight programming of the point of impact. The introduction of the flight program and target thus occurs at the airfield just before the ammunition is hung on the aircraft, Militarnyi reported.

To date, only 500-pound Western bombs are known to have been used by the Ukrainian air force. JDAM kits could be carried only by Su-24M frontline bombers.

Ukraine has previously modified MiG-29 fighters to enable them to carry Western weapons.

JDAM is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or “dumb bombs”, into all-weather precision-guided munitions. It consists of a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces and an inertial control system paired with a GPS receiver.

The munition in the photo can be visually identified as a Mark 82 500-pound bomb. Its weight in the metric system is 230kg, of which 89kg is explosives.

Equipped with the JDAM-ER kit, the Mark 82 bomb is capable of striking the target at a distance of up to 72km with a maximum deviation from the target of up to 11m.