The United States on Friday announced more than $2 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, including ground-launched bombs that could nearly double Ukrainian forces’ range against the Russians.
These are the “GLSDB”, small-diameter bombs from Boeing and Saab that can fly up to 150 km and thus threaten Russian positions behind the front lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his American counterpart Joe Biden after the announcement.
“The longer the range of our weapons and the more mobile our troops, the sooner Russia’s brutal aggression will end,” he tweeted.
The “GLSDB” will give the Ukrainians “a longer-range capability (…) that will enable them to conduct operations to defend their territory and retake their sovereign territory,” the Pentagon spokesman told the press. , Pat Ryder.
Ukraine is asking the United States for munitions that can fly further than Himars missiles (80 km).
These GLSDBs can enable Ukrainian forces to attack positions in the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions and northern Crimea.
This could particularly threaten Russian arms depots.
According to Saab, these weapons could hit a target at any angle within one meter.
“The accuracy of GLSDBs is so high that they can match the radius of a car tire,” claims Saab on its website.
In December, John Hardie and Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank wrote that GLSDBs could be fired from various types of launchers, including Himars and M270 MLRS, already in service in Ukraine.
“But they can also be launched from non-traditional launchers, such as from the back of a truck or any container hidden in plain sight,” they added.
“It would therefore be more difficult for Russian forces to find and destroy the system.”
But they had said initial shipments to Ukraine could take up to nine months.
When asked about this, the Pentagon did not immediately respond.
A Boeing spokesman said the company would not provide any information on delivery times.
That nearly $2.2 billion in U.S. security assistance also includes “crucial air defense capabilities to help Ukraine defend its people,” “armored infantry vehicles,” and ammunition for the Himars launcher system, the Defense Department said.
Since the Russian invasion began in late February 2022, US authorities have provided more than $29.3 billion in security aid to Ukraine, according to the Pentagon.
“The United States will continue to work with our allies and partners to provide Ukraine with the capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance needs,” the department statement said.