The projectile can be launched using the M142 HIMARS and M270 multiple rocket launchers, which, by the way, were already delivered to the Ukrainian army last year.
Photo: wikimedia.org
In recent days, the Ukrainian and Western press have been “inflating the censer” hard in connection with reports that the United States is preparing to supply Kyiv with long-range GLSDB hybrid projectiles.
Bloomberg wrote that, according to his sources, these miraculous munitions will appear in Ukraine within nine months.
Well, what kind of animals are these – GLSDB and how can they affect the situation on the battlefield? What should the Russian army be prepared for? Or in other words, how and how will this misfortune be repelled? Let’s try to figure it out.
Let’s start at the edge: why is this ammunition coded with the abbreviation GLSDB?
It’s simple: these are the initial letters of the difficult term Small Diameter Ground Launched Bomb. Which translates into a small diameter bomb launched from the ground. It was created by the American corporation Boeing together with the Swedish manufacturer Saab AB.
The American-made GBU-39 guided bomb was taken as a basis, which has its own navigation system, as well as special folding wings, the so-called planning modules. To create a fundamentally new ammunition, this “smart” bomb was literally crossed with a rocket propulsion system. And it can be launched using the M142 HIMARS and M270 multiple rocket launchers, which, by the way, were already delivered to the Ukrainian army last year. And they are being used in force against Russian troops and the civilian population of the cities of Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye. Here the Americans clearly had an economic calculation – there is no need to spend money on the creation of new special launchers.
The main thing is this: GLSDB can become the longest-range ammunition of the Ukrainian army. It will be able to hit targets at a distance of 150 km with a deviation of only 1 meter (if, of course, you take the word of its creators).
If this happens, all the territory that the Russian army currently controls in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will be attacked. The northern Crimea and the border regions with Ukraine will also be under threat of bombing: Belgorod, Rostov, Bryansk and Kursk…
Well, how does GLSDB “work”? Now you will understand why the projectile was called “smart”.
It is launched along a ballistic trajectory, after launch, the ammunition rises to the maximum height, and then begins to hover an enemy object. Also, the projectile can hit targets in any direction, even opposite to the launch. On the final trajectory, the ammunition can correct the direction of flight, which allows it to be used effectively to destroy hard-to-reach targets, for example, hidden behind hills or multi-story buildings. Before the explosion, the projectile usually falls vertically downwards. Undermining can also be carried out on a target to destroy infantry, with a direct hit to destroy armored vehicles, or with a delay; this method is used to traverse shelters.
Warhead GLSDB – 16 kg.
Diameter – 19 cm.
Length – 180 cm.
Well, how much is the thing?
Here you should know that the price of GLSDB consists of the cost of the already mentioned GBU-39 bomb used as a warhead (this is $40,000), the cost of a rocket motor ($160,000) and the cost of assembly work (and this is not less than $30,000). Together they go for $200,000 – $250,000 per unit.
And what, do you think that the tens of thousands of GLSDB already promised to Kyiv by the Americans will be given “for that”? There are no fools in the White House and the Pentagon. For all this ammunition (as well as other weapons and military equipment), Zelensky and his government (or rather, the people of Ukraine) will have to pay. I don’t have more money? No problem! Washington has already come up with a magnificent barter: Kyiv will continue to bear fruit with angry companies, mines (say, with reserves of titanium and uranium), explored underground gas “lakes” and even gigantic fat tracts of black earth. Well, okay, let the deceived Ukrainians have a headache from this. And for us, a new “headache” is much more important – how we will deal with this new scourge in the form of GLSDB.
Stuck is serious.
I will try to reassure fellow citizens: the antidote for such weapons, apparently, should be a modified version of the Pantsirya-SM complex. After completion (taking into account the combat experience already gained in Ukraine), he had the opportunity to deal with various types of complex targets, including small-sized guided bombs. As it will be in reality, CBO will show it. Although our army has other ways to avoid the “troubles” of the GLSDB – to destroy the American HIMARS and M270 launchers (from which the ammunition will be launched) immediately after appearing on the territory of Ukraine. Well of course beat warehouses with GLSDB.
The inevitable question is: do we have something similar? Eat. This is a whole progeny of precision-guided munitions Krasnopol, Kitolov, Gran and others.
The Krasnopol guided projectile, for example, has a semi-active laser guidance head. Designed to destroy stationary and moving armored and unarmored targets and engineering structures at a distance of up to 25 km, and from the first shot.
“Gran” and “Kitolov” also ensure the destruction of not only stationary, but also mobile targets with the first shot, without additional zeroing. But we must admit that all these our high-precision shells, although they hit the enemy with a sniper, are still much inferior to the American GLSDB in terms of the range of attack on the target. Our design offices and research institutes are working on this now. In the meantime, we are more than fending off the capabilities of the GLSDB with other “instruments”: high-precision missiles “Caliber”, “Dagger”, “Iskander” and aviation Kh-55. And they hit not for 150 or 160 kilometers, but for 2.5 thousand and more …
