Russia has strapped jet engines to some of its old Soviet-era munitions, stretching Ukraine’s already strained air defenses by allowing them to strike targets deep inside Moscow’s borders. The Soviet “dumb bombs,” retrofitted with glider wings, have been in use since 2023, and were typically deployed from Russian fighter jets on the front lines with a range of around 50 miles. But the latest upgrade, which has seen the bombs fitted with cheap Chinese-made turboengines purchased off Alibaba, has increased that range to around 125 miles, transforming the bombs into a “cheap substitute for a cruise missile,” according to Ukrainian military expert Pavlo Narozhny, allowing Russia to target even more of Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilian population without needing to leave Russian-controlled territory. While the jet propulsion system limits the bomb’s payload, and the weapons can be countered with electronic warfare, their deployment poses a significant new challenge for Kyiv, which is already struggling to maintain its supply of anti-air munitions and has seen its interception rates of Russian missiles drop sharply over the summer. “The economy of war isn’t in our favor,” said Narozhny, noting that Western Patriot missiles are also much more expensive than the retrofitted Soviet glider-bombs. “If they can scale up production, it will be a great challenge for us.”
Read it at Financial Times
