The highly destructive guided glide bombs Russia has long used to pummel Ukrainian defenses and cities are being jammed, according to new reports, in what could be a significant gear change in Ukraine’s ability to fend off the aerial attacks.
Russia’s Soviet-era glide bombs quickly became known as a terrifying weapon by Ukrainians on the front lines and in cities in Moscow’s crosshairs.
Kyiv has said for many months that Russia has hammered Ukraine with hundreds of glide bombs each week. It has large stockpiles of the weapons, which are cheaper than the likes of ballistic and cruise missiles.
Heavy glide bomb attacks have typically preceded Russian infantry assaults on Ukrainian defenses unable to intercept the upgraded munitions or take down the aircraft launching them. NATO has launched its own campaign to try to find a way to intercept guided glide bombs.
Glide bombs are typically referred to as FABs or KABs. FABs are built to be dropped on a target, but for course correction and guidance, they need to be fitted with a Unified Gliding and Correction Module (UMPK), Katja Fedina, a senior analyst in defense and security at the European branch of the RAND think tank, previously told Newsweek.
With pop-out glide wings and sensors, Fedina added, “this also makes it possible to drop these outside the reach of air defense as the UMPK provides an extended gliding range.”
But “the divine age of UMPKs was short-lived,” the Fighterbomber Telegram channel, a member of Russia’s influential cabal of military bloggers, wrote on Tuesday.
The UMPK guidance kits “played a huge role” in shielding Russia’s aerial forces from Ukrainian air defenses, the account said, but “nothing lasts forever.”
“All satellite correction systems have officially left the chat,” the blogger added.
It appears Ukraine has found a way to disrupt satellite navigation for the guidance kits bolted onto these bombs with electronic warfare, said Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher with the War Studies department at King’s College London, U.K.
Russia managed a similar feat with Ukraine’s NATO-donated precision-guided weapons, she told Newsweek. Russia will need to rework its guidance kits to make them as effective as they once were, Miron added.
Ivan Stupak, a former officer with Ukraine’s SBU security service, told Newsweek that Ukraine had succeeded in deploying a significant number of electronic warfare systems, but details are scant due to operational security.
All “high-value” targets for Russian glide bombs are now covered by electronic warfare systems, the Fighterbomber channel said. It is not clear whether Russia’s own extensive electronic warfare systems are impacting the guided glide bombs.
To be effective now, Stupak said, Russia would need to use far more of its weapons against a singular target.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force told domestic media that Ukraine had intercepted a guided glide bomb in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. It was not the first successful attempt to knock these bombs from their trajectory, the spokesperson said, but did not offer further details.
In June 2024, the Rand think tank suggested that electronic warfare would be able to defeat guided glide bombs if it could successfully confuse the weapons’ satellite navigation systems.
“To protect critical infrastructure, Ukraine would need powerful jammers to block satellite signals over a wide expanse,” the think tank said at the time, adding that the bombs would have to rely on inertial guidance, should satellite access be jammed.
“This is less accurate for precision targeting,” the organization evaluated.
The Rand think tank in an analysis published in June last year said that with glide bombs, “errors increase the farther the bomb flies without satellite guidance.”
It remains to be seen whether the Russians can develop a workaround to defeat Ukraine’s apparent victory against the glide bombs. But the development may force Russia to faster deplete its stocks of more expensive and potentially more devastating munitions.
© 2025, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
