WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is mulling over a Boeing plan to provide Ukraine with inexpensive, tiny precision bombs mounted on an abundance of readily accessible rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike well behind Russian lines as the West struggles to fulfill the rising demand for armaments.
As the battle grinds on, U.S. and partner military stocks are diminishing, and Ukraine’s demand for more advanced weapons is growing. According to industry insiders, Boeing’s planned device, termed Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), is one of around six ideas for bringing new weapons into production for Ukraine and America’s Eastern European allies.
Although the United States has denied requests for ATACMS missiles with a range of 185 miles, the GLSDB’s range of 94 miles would enable Ukraine to hit previously inaccessible important military objectives and assist it in continuing its counterattacks by disturbing the Russian rear.
After a battle with a Russian raiding group in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian army personnel seek for and retrieve unexploded shells.
According to a document examined by Reuters and three people with knowledge of the proposal, GLSDB may be delivered as early as spring 2023. It combines the ordinary GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) with the M26 rocket engine.
Doug Bush, the U.S. Army’s senior weapons buyer, told reporters last week at the Pentagon that the Army was also considering permitting military contractors to make 155 millimeter artillery rounds, which are now solely manufactured at government sites.
The invasion of Ukraine increased demand for American-made weapons and ammunition, while U.S. allies in Eastern Europe are “placing a lot of orders” for a variety of guns as they supply Ukraine, as stated by President Bush.
The Army is considering boosting production of 155mm artillery ammunition for Ukraine, the Pentagon was informed last week.
Tom Karako, a weapons and security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, stated, “It’s all about acquiring a large amount at a low price.” Falling U.S. stockpiles help explain the rush to acquire more armaments now, since stocks are “becoming low compared to the levels we want to maintain on hand and definitely to the levels we’ll need to deter a China fight,” according to him.
Karako also remarked that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan left an abundance of accessible air-dropped explosives. They cannot be employed simply with Ukrainian aircraft, but “given the current environment, we should seek inventive ways to convert them to standoff capabilities.”
»The United States is considering sending a 100-mile strike weapon to Ukraine«