According to Politico, two other U.S. officials and two others with knowledge of the situation said that the Department of Defense has achieved good results in ground-fired small missile tests against Ukraine. The new long-range attack device is expected to be used in the war in Ukraine on January 31. This advance means that the Ukrainian military finally has a new strike force a year later.
GLSDB, the full name of which is "ground-launched small-caliber missile", was jointly launched by Swedish Saab and Boeing in 2014. The missile is a new long-range precision attack on land** consisting of a small warhead carried by a fighter jet and a solid-state rocket engine launched by multiple rocket launchers. At the heart of the gun is its unique assembly method, which integrates two parts that were originally separated by an interstage adapter, so as to obtain strong attack performance.
The warhead of the missile uses a miniature, miniature homing bomb GBU-39 B, developed by Boeing up to 200 kg. The missile has an overall length of 1,800 mm and a diameter of 190 mm, and is equipped with a diamond-type foldable glider to increase the glide range. The maximum gliding distance can reach 110 kilometers and is equipped with a laser-guided finder that guarantees accuracy of up to 5 meters at a maximum distance.
The energy component of GLSBD, from the conventional M26 solid-state rocket engine to the new solid-state rocket engine of the well-known Norwegian arms company Nanmo, can be carried out in a variety of options. This flexibility allows the GLSBD to use the correct engine for ignition, which guarantees a starting distance of up to 50 km.
When the missile is in the air, its warhead is separated from the engine, while the small-caliber seeker deploys the wings, leaving it in a non-powered glide state. During this period, the missile still relied on its glide performance, which can glide up to 100 kilometers. In this way, the maximum range of the full version of the LSBD can reach 150 km. Sweden's Saab announced that instead of following a conventional parabolic trajectory, GLSDB has adopted non-kinetic flight. This means that the new missile can maneuver freely in the air, like a missile, and can well evade the lock-on of conventional air defense radars. This characteristic gives it a strong survivability and penetration ability in combat.
The United States said that due to the stalemate in the front, Ukraine is seeking new ways to attack Russian forces and their infrastructure behind the battle line. Although this ultra-long-range ** is not as effective as the "Storm Shadow" or the strategic missiles of the US military, for the Ukrainian military, this missile can still bring them a new means of attack. Especially after the installation of GLSBD on the Ukrainian "Hippocampus" multiple rocket launchers, its combat effectiveness will increase even more. The Hippocampus fighter jet entered service in June 2022 and has shown so much combat effectiveness that Russia has placed it on its list of priority attacks. However, so far, only one Hippocampus fighter has been confirmed to have been destroyed, and the rest of the combat records claimed by the Russian side are highly likely to be false.
Therefore, US officials believe that the GLSBD small-caliber missile will become a key force for Ukraine and is expected to bring strong support to its operations on the ground. There is no doubt that the advent of this ** will provide a new strategic superiority to the Ukrainian military power.