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The air-launched version of the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), the GBU-39, has been secretly supplied by the United States to Ukraine.
The delivery was first revealed by The Washington Post on May 24. Later on the same day, a U.S. official first confirmed to The War Zone that Kiev forces had already used the bomb in combat. On May 25, a photo showing at least two bombs of this type loaded onto a MiG-29 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force surfaced online, further confirming the delivery.
The 129-kilogram GBU-39 is guided by a GPS-aided inertial navigation system and has a range of around 111 kilometers when launched from air.
The U.S. didn’t publicly announce the plans to deliver the air-launched version of the GBU-39 to Ukraine. However, it revealed the delivery of the Ground-Launched SDB, known as the GLSDB, earlier this year.
The GLSDB combines the GBU-39 SDB with the M26 227 mm rocket motor. It has a range of up to 150 kilometers. To speed up the delivery to Ukraine, the U.S. reportedly developed special launchers for the munitions, which are not yet compatible with the M270 MLRS and the M142 HIMARS systems already supplied to Kiev forces.
The GLSDB failed in Ukraine in the face of Russian electronic warfare means, according to The Washington Post’s report and another published by Reuters on the same day, May 24. However, the air-launched version had more success.
“One U.S. weapon used by aircraft, the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, has proved resilient to jamming,” The Washington Post said in its report citing confidential internal Ukrainian assessments. The same article notes that “nearly 90 percent of dropped [Small Diameter Bombs] struck their target.”
No details are provided about the numbers of air-launched SDBs provided to Ukraine and which warplanes are dropping them, but the report states that they began to be delivered to Ukraine in November of last year.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the first interception of an SDB-type bomb last March. In later months, the remains of several munitions of this type were found in remote areas in the special military operation after they were apparently jammed by Russian electronic warfare means.
The Washington Post’s claims about the air-launched SDB being more resilient to Russian electronic warfare does not make much sense as this version uses the exact same guidance system installed in the ground-launched version.
Here it is important to note that the newspaper was citing official Ukrainian assessments, which may have been manipulated then leaked to justify the supply of the air-launched version of the bomb after the failure of the ground-launched one.
The fact that Kiev forces have been using the air-launched SDB at least since last November and it made no difference whatsoever in the battlefield indicates that it has indeed failed, just like the GLSDB.
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