FAB 3000 bomb dropped by Putin’s Russia for the first time in Ukraine: what is the “gliding” missile

A “gliding bomb” weighing over three tons with unmatched power, capable of disintegrating ten-story buildings in one fell swoop. This is what happened in the small Ukrainian town of Liptsy, on the front in the Kharkiv region, where the Russian air force launched the FAB-3000 for the first time, a bomb that could bring a decisive turning point in the conflict in favor of Moscow’s army .

What is the FAB-3000

The most powerful of the so-called “gliding bombs”, evolution of the versions from 500 to 1,500 kilosthe FAB-3000 is a low-tech but devastatingly effective weapon that would allow the Russian air force to come into play more decisively in the war in Ukraine.

Called “idiot bombs” by the Anglo-Saxon forces, this type of device of Soviet origin has been modified with a simple expedient that allows it to glide, thus extending its range up to ten to twenty kilometers and allowing Russian planes to escape anti-aircraft fire.

The “gliding” missile

The so-called UMPK kit was added to the bombs of the FAB family, two folding ailerons and a navigation system inertial and satellite which allows the Russian Air Force to launch these missiles with a deadly explosive charge from further away.

Lacking missiles capable of hitting long-distance targets, since the beginning of the war against Kiev, Russian fighters have been unable to accompany Moscow’s offensive without being hit by Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles.

With the use of adapted FAB bombs, the air force has found an additional weapon, albeit imprecise, to destroy even large targets.

Production and use in the war in Ukraine

Given the effectiveness of the FAB 500 and FAB 1500 versions, in March 2024 the now former Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoiguhad announced that he wanted to focus on these weapons en masse, after a visit to the plant in Nizhny Novgorod, a city in central European Russia, capital of the oblast of the same name and of the federal district of the Volga.

The ministry, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, explained the importance of these bombs, which are very economical and practical, and the need for their use for the success of the war in Ukraine, communicating the increase in the production of FAB-500, the doubling of the Fab-1500, and the start, from mid-February, of the series production of the FAB 3000, launched for the first time on the town of Lipsty.