According to the recent West** assessment of the Russia-Ukraine war situation, it is estimated that the Russian army has consumed 8,000 missiles in the past two years. This includes conventional missiles such as the KH101 long-range air-launched cruise missile and the Iskander tactical missile, as well as hypersonic missiles such as the Dagger. In this way, an average of more than 10 pieces are sent a day.
In the Iraq War alone, the US military launched more than 19,000 air-to-ground missiles, NATO dropped more than 7,000 tactical air-to-ground guided munitions during the 78-day bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the multinational forces dropped nearly 9,000 tactical air-to-ground guided munitions in 42 days during the Gulf War.
Comparatively speaking, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been fought for almost two years before it has been fought so much, which is also an important reason why Russia cannot win quickly.
Russia's "Iskander" tactical missile is priced at $1 million to $2 million, and the Dagger hypersonic missile is priced at $5 million. And most of the guided munitions in the United States are still guided bombs, and they do not have their own power systems, which is much cheaper.
Of course, it's not that Russia can't afford to buy more missiles, the biggest bottleneck is production capacity, adding a power system is a lot more complicated, and now Russia's workers are also aging badly, and after the disintegration, there is a large loss of technical personnel, and it is quite good to have the current production capacity.
The Russian military recently unveiled a new gliding bomb modification kit, which is three times larger than the active bomb and has become a major problem for the Ukrainian army.
Recently, the Russian military disclosed a new gliding bomb modification kit for the FAB-1500 M54 guided bomb, equipped with a pop-up gliding wing, capable of providing long-range strike capabilities for Russian tactical aircraft and keeping pilots away from enemy air defense circles. The modification kit for this bomb consisted of a pair of ejection wings and a V-shaped tail fin, which reduced flight resistance and increased range through a prototype fairing. While the exact bombing accuracy and range have not yet been disclosed, gliding bombs equipped with modified kits will undoubtedly pose a greater threat to the Ukrainian army. It is noteworthy that the Russian Ministry of Defense also showed possible tests of a modified version of the 500-kilogram universal high-explosive aerial bomb FAB-500 M62 UMPK kit, which is also equipped with a V-shaped tail. Guided bombs at least have a much better range and accuracy than unguided munitions, and if Russia had these equipment from the beginning, many losses of the Russian Air Force would have been avoidable.
It seems that Russia is also gradually improving, equipping itself with cheaper guidance**.