Ukraine's 'Miracle Weapon' Is a Cheap, Hard-to-Jam Glide Bomb

After 10 more tests, the Ukrainian KAB-clone should be ready for mass production

The KAB glide bomb—a 1,100- or 2,200-pound gravity bomb with add-on satellite guidance and pop-out wings—is a “miracle weapon” for Russia, to borrow the Ukrainian Deep State analysis group’s phrasing.

Lobbing more than 100 KABs a day all along the 700-mile front line of their wider war on Ukraine, Russian forces blast gaps in Ukrainian defenses, suppress Ukrainian drone operators and threaten the flow of supplies to Ukrainian brigades.

Desperate to do to the Russians what the Russians have been doing to them with their $25,000 KABs, the Ukrainians are developing a virtual copy. A recent video (see above) depicts a Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-24 bomber dropping a KAB-clone during testing.

The KAB-clone isn’t Ukraine’s only glide bomb. It has a stock of American-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs—and also gets Hammer glide-bombs from France. The Ukrainian military is developing a boutique glide-bomb that can be produced locally. But none of those winged munitions possess the one quality that makes the KAB-clone so attractive: its low cost.