According to the Ukrainian media such as RBC-Ukrainian News Agency on January 31, the Pentagon has confirmed that the United States intends to provide Ukraine with "land-launched small-diameter bombs" (GLSDB), but refuses to disclose the timetable for handing over these long-range munitions to the Ukrainian side.
Screenshot of the report by RBC-Ukrainian News Agency.
On the evening of January 30, local time, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder confirmed that Ukraine will receive "land-launched small-diameter bombs" from the United States, "as far as small-diameter bombs are concerned, as we recognized last year, as part of a security assistance funded by the U.S. 'Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative' (USAI), we will provide Ukraine with land-launched small-diameter bombs." However, he made it clear that the Pentagon will not confirm a specific timetable for the transfer of this type of ammunition due to operational security concerns, and "we will let the Ukrainian side discuss all deliveries."
Earlier, on January 30, the American "Political News Network" quoted the United States ** and people familiar with the matter as saying that the Pentagon has successfully tested the GLSDB for Ukraine, and it is expected to be put on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as January 31. The report also said that even the U.S. ** team has not yet been equipped with this ammunition.
Separately, during a visit to Kyiv on January 31, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland claimed that Russia is expected to have "some surprises" on the battlefield in Ukraine and that "Ukraine will have some very big successes this year."
According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the leader of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, who is supported by Russia, said that the United States provides Ukraine with a GLSDB with a range of about 150 kilometers, which only justifies the necessity of demilitarizing Ukraine, which is the goal of the Russian army's operation. In his opinion, NATO's attempts to turn the territory of Ukraine into a testing ground for its ** are moving to a new level.
Anatoly Matvichuk, a Russian military expert and former special forces officer, said that the GLSDB is not a very special ammunition, it is just an ordinary ammunition that can travel in the air and has all the physical characteristics of a rocket. "All our anti-aircraft missile systems, from the" Pantsir "and above, can easily detect this ammunition and destroy it. He said.
According to the RBC-Ukrainian news agency, GLSDB is a precision-guided munition jointly developed by Boeing and Saab of Sweden, which uses GPS guidance, is capable of overcoming certain electronic countermeasures, and can be used in various weather conditions, capable of hitting targets at a distance of about 150 kilometers. This ammunition combines the rocket engine of the GBU-39 small-caliber bomb and the M26 rocket launched by the Hippocampus rocket launcher, which is then fired by rocket artillery systems such as the Hippocampus or M270.
In November last year, the West reported that the United States had postponed the delivery of the first GLSDB to Ukraine until 2024. According to the American "Political News Network", the Pentagon announced in February last year that Biden ** was providing GLSDB to Ukraine. But before the official delivery, the US side needed to test this one, which took nearly a year.
Global Times.