Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Russia Claims To Have Developed A New And Better Smart Bomb

Image credit: Russian MoD

Michael Peck, National Interest: Did Russia Really Build a Smarter Smart Bomb?

News of a new targeting system seem too good to be true.

Russia claims to have developed an ingenious new smart bomb.

Or rather, instead of making the bomb smarter, it's the aircraft carrying the bomb that has all the brains, according to the Russian news site the Saker.

The Saker article attributes the "amazingly accurate" and "quasi-miraculous" Russian bombing in Syria to a weapon called the SVP-24. The SVP-24 is a system that turns unguided conventional bombs into precision-guided weapons, similar to the U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). But whereas the JDAM is a guidance kit attached to an iron bomb, Russia's SVP-24 attaches the guidance kit to the bomber itself.

"What this system does is that it constantly compares the position of the aircraft and the target (using the GLONASS satellite navigation system)," the Saker says.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The Saker article on the development of this better "smart bomb" is here .... Technology SITREP: How Russian engineering made the current operation in Syria possible (Saker).

3 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

I've talked to USAF personell who claim it's not possible, and no different than the 1970's US system,

And other USAF personell , who note that with the "right" sensor mix, it's perfectly possible.

fazman said...

If its not possible then how could it be like a 1970s system.
At yhe end of the day no one outside of the r and d dept would know.

Jay Farquharson said...

The ones who say it's "not possible", are talking about getting iron bombs on target, with that accuracy,

Because all of the variables, ( air density, multi levels of wind, even temp) that affect a bomb drop, and compare the system to the still classified late 1970's B52 system that managed on it's best days, a 30 metre CEP.

Others note that there are currently sensors available, which if used, and integrated would make the 4 metre CEP possible, but that's not something the West has done.

The MFG and the RASF have been "quiet" about the specific details of the system, other than claiming a 4 metre CEP.

As an example, the Kalibir ( NATO code named Klub) missile's been around a while, but nobody in "the West" believed it's accuracy, multi path course guidance, radar avoidance , supersonic sprint or accuracy was possible for a "Russian" missile, until the Russians fire some from the Caspain Sea, at ISIS targets in Syria.