The Floor-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) combines the GBU-39 SDB with the M26 rocket motor.

The Pentagon is contemplating a Boeing proposal to produce Ukraine with GLSDBs an unique Reuters report unveiled on Nov. 28, 2022. The GLSDB may very well be delivered as early as spring 2023 and would permit Kyiv to strike far behind Russian strains, utilizing Ukrainian MLRS and HIMARS launchers.

“U.S. and allied army inventories are shrinking, and Ukraine faces an growing want for extra subtle weapons because the battle drags on. Boeing’s proposed system, dubbed Floor-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), is considered one of a few half-dozen plans for getting new munitions into manufacturing for Ukraine and America’s Jap European allies, business sources stated” in keeping with the report.

GLSDB is a weapon that mixes a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) with the M26 rocket motor, each of that are widespread in U.S. inventories. The SDB is a small 250-lb multipurpose, insensitive, penetrating bomb with a blast-fragmentation warhead for stationary targets. It’s outfitted with deployable wings for prolonged standoff vary that open upon launch permitting the GPS-guided bomb to glide for a number of miles earlier than hitting the goal with accuracy.

Whereas the usual SDBs are launched at high-speed and altitude by numerous “compatible” aircraft, the GLSDB, developed in partnership by Saab and Boeing since 2019, are fired by A number of Launch Rocket System rockets. The GLSDB is in reality launcher unbiased, which implies any launcher of the M270/M142 interface can be utilized.

The GLSDB has a 150 km vary, about half the vary of the MGM-140 Military Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile, however sufficient to hit worthwhile Russian floor targets from distance.

In response to Boeing’s proposal to the US European Command (EUCOM), which oversees the arms switch to Ukraine, the primary elements of the GLSDB will come from the present US stockpile. “The M26 rocket motor is comparatively plentiful, and the GBU-39 prices about $40,000 every, making the finished GLSDB cheap and its fundamental elements available,” says Reuters’ Mike Stone. “Though arms producers are fighting demand, these elements make it potential to yield weapons by early 2023, albeit at a low fee of manufacturing.”

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse army aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, masking aviation, protection, battle, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with totally different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Drive, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.