Ukraine’s First Glide Bomb Ready for Combat Deployment

Ukraine’s first glide bomb, developed by a Brave1 participant, has passed all required tests and is ready for combat deployment, the Ukrainian MoD announced today.

The development will help the Ukrainian Air Force to achieve combat parity with Russia’s KAB series of glide bombs that enable attack against enemy targets from a stand-off distance.

What is a glide bomb?

A glide bomb or a guided aerial bomb (GAB) is an air-launched munition equipped with guidance and aerodynamic control systems designed to significantly increase targeting accuracy.  The main advantage of glide bombs over conventional aerial bombs is that they can be launched from an aircraft dozens of kilometers outside the range of enemy air defenses.

How Ukraine's glide bomb compares to Western GBUs and Russian KABs

Western air forces field a wide range of similar systems known as Guided Bomb Units (GBUs), including the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), GBU-31 JDAM, and the extended-range JDAM-ER. These weapons are built around guidance kits attached to conventional bombs.

Russia has fielded its own variant since 2023, retrofitting Soviet-era FAB bombs with the UMPK guidance kit.

Ukraine's new glide bomb is a domestic answer to this class of weapons, designed from scratch.

Ukraine’s glide bomb is built on lessons from the war

Ukraine’s glide bomb is not a copy of Western or Soviet-designed systems. It is an indigenous development created by Ukrainian engineers over the course of 17 months. Brave1 supported the project with a grant at an early stage of development.

The guided aerial bomb incorporates a unique design tailored to the realities of modern warfare.