FLASH
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Russia has begun to use a powerful aerial bombardment, which has destroyed Ukrainian defenses and tipped the balance on the war front. It has done this by converting a basic Soviet-era weapon into a glide bomb that can cause craters 15 meters deep.
The bomb in question is called the FAB-1500, a 1.5 ton weapon, almost half of which consists of solid explosives.
It is launched by warplanes from a distance of 60 to 70 km, beyond the range of most air defense systems in Ukraine.
The Fab-1500 is another example of how Russia is waging its war in Ukraine, causing mass destruction before taking the territory. Recent videos from the battlefield in the Donetsk region show the great power of these bombs as they hit thermal power plants, factories and tower blocks, places from where Ukraine coordinates its defense.
The FAB-1500 is guided to its target by a guidance system, and has wings that help it glide toward the target. Joseph Trevithick, who has written about the new bomb's development for "The Warzone," says it offers a far more destructive option for Russia's many tactical aircraft, and helps pilots stay clear of enemy defense lines.
As it is said, the FAB-500, baptized as hell by many experts, has become a critical element of Moscow's offensive in Donetsk and especially for flattening the area around Avdivka, a town occupied in February.
"On the eve and during the battle of Avdiivka, hundreds of aerial bombs were dropped in a few days. 250 of them were used in the Avdiivka direction in just 48 hours," Yuri Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, told CNN.
A member of the Ukrainian Army, the 59th Brigade, waits to receive new supplies before moving to a new position in November 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine.
The FAB-1500 is the most powerful in a family of Soviet-era 'dumb bombs' that are now being converted at a factory near Moscow into a cheap but powerful version of a missile.
Justin Bronk, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says that "while the production of slide kits is a bottleneck, the basic explosive package is something they have in large numbers".
So the Russians have too much firepower to bring in fixed defenses, increasing Ukrainian casualties, though still not enough to fundamentally change the front lines.
"This is not a cheap or quick transformation, but it is still far less than the millions of dollars a rocket costs. It's pennies compared to a rocket," he said.
Russian military bloggers began referring to the weapon last September, when its accuracy was being tested. The Fighterbomber telegram channel noted that "after many months of trial and error", a FAB-1500 had "accurately" hit its "combat target" for the first time.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces on the front line, particularly in Donetsk, are exposed to a rapid onslaught of Russian airstrikes - sometimes more than 100 a day, according to Ukraine's General Staff.
Just as the Russians previously wiped out Ukrainian positions with intense artillery, they are now using a seemingly inexhaustible supply of these devastating bombs to leave Ukrainian forces with nothing to defend and nowhere to shelter./ Taken with cuts from CNN
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