Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday shared a video of what is said was one of its Su-34 jets dropping a FAB-3000 glide bomb on a Ukrainian military position.
FAB-3000 bombs weigh 6,600 pounds or 3.3 tons.
A Russian pilot in the video bragged that “it is difficult to imagine a target that would not be destroyed by an aerial bomb of this size,” according to a translation of his remarks by Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.
The video shows a bomb being attached to the underside of a plane, and then a similar-looking bomb is seen traveling through the air before aerial video of an explosion among a group of buildings is shown.
Russia has increasingly been using glide bombs in its invasion of Ukraine. The bombs are older munitions that have been upgraded with new guidance systems, allowing them to be launched at a distance.
This is a huge advantage and has allowed Russia to use them to a devastating effect: aircraft can launch the bombs from a far enough distance that Ukraine often can’t shoot the planes down.
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, said in March that Russia dropped 700 glide bombs on Ukraine between March 18 and March 24 alone.
And the bombs have been getting bigger. A video last month captured what appeared to be the first time Russia used a three-ton glide bomb on Ukraine.
Experts say the only way Ukraine can properly defend against these types of bombs is by intercepting Russian aircraft before they launch the bombs, or by hitting the aircraft while they’re still on the ground.
But the US says that Ukraine cannot use the long-range equipment it has given to Ukraine to hit military targets deep inside Russia, which means that Ukraine cannot target many Russian airfields.
Hitting the bombs while they’re in the air is also hugely challenging.
The bombs have short flight times, small radar signatures, and non-ballistic trajectories — all of which make them very difficult to intercept, Business Insider’s Jake Epstein previously reported.
Ukraine also says it doesn’t have enough air defense systems.
Ukraine is developing its own glide bombs and is also requesting more air defense systems from its allies.
