Glide bomb

A glide bomb is a convention "dumb bomb" of "gravity bomb" with attached wings that make the bomb glide farther from its drop point from aircraft.

During the Special Military Operation on the territory of Ukraine in 2020s, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation converted thousands of conventional 500kg, 1000kg, and 1500kg gravity bombs from an enormous stockpile built up since the 1960s, with a "glide kit", attaching wings that unfold after being dropped and adding a precision guidance system in a nose kit. The Russian modified glide bombs have an advantage over Western cruise missiles, in that none of its weight is wasted carrying an expensive engine or fuel, carry a very large warhead, and are relatively cheap in comparison to Western cruise missiles. They have been called the Russian counterpart of the US JDAM, only much less expensive.

Russian glide bombs such as the FAB 500 can travel up to 60 miles, can be fired from behind Russian defensives lines, while the aircraft delivery vehicle is not exposed to enemy air defense systems.

Various versions of the Russian glide bomb were used to devastating effect in the NATO war in Ukraine.