[Tee tiong huat]

US readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons
EURACTIV.com with Reuters

1 Feb 2023
The Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) made jointly by Boeing Co and SAAB, have a range of 94 miles (150 km). 
     
The US$2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine is include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons it is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons,.

The USAI funds would go toward the purchase of a new weapon, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) made by Boeing Co, which have a range of 94 miles (150 km). The US has rebuffed Ukraine’s requests for the 185-mile (297-km) range ATACMS missile.

The longer range of the GLSDB glide bomb could allow Ukraine to hit targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russia further behind its lines.

Reuters first reported on Boeing’s proposal to field GLSDB for Ukraine in November. At the time it was expected GLSDB could be in Ukraine by spring.

GLSDB is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing. It combines the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) with the M26 rocket motor, both of which are common in US inventories.

GLSDB is GPS-guided, can defeat some electronic jamming, is usable in all weather conditions, and can be used against armored vehicles, according to SAAB’s website. The GBU-39 – which would function as the GLSDB’s warhead – has small, folding wings that allow it to glide more than 100km if dropped from an aircraft and hit targets as small as 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-...e-weapons/

Russia’s war in Ukraine is predominantly an artillery war, with 90% of casualties caused by cannon, howitzer or rocket fire. Victories and defeats – on both sides – are largely determined by the weight and accuracy of steel and explosives dropped on top of the enemy. By most measures, the war’s single most powerful weapon is the U.S.-designed M270 rocket artillery system.

In a exclusive interviews with Kyiv Post on January combat operations in the Bakhmut sector, soldiers & officers from one of Ukraine’s most secretive artillery units, the 107th Rocket Artillery Brigade, describe their experience learning to operate M270, and using its precision-guided rockets to strike Putin army troop concentrations, headquarters and their ammo dumps.

“We understand this is a big responsibility, and that we have an important role to play in the war,” commander Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Suprunyuk* says. “Every mission we carry out can have a decisive effect, and for many reasons we have no right to make a mistake.”

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/11446