[Tee tiong huat]

Greece “Almost Certain” To Arm Ukraine With 32 Fighting Falcons
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/greece-alm...e-f16/amp/

Norway to Transfer 22 F-16 Fighter Jets to Ukraine in a critical, large-scale donation of modern weaponry to Ukraine’s hard-pressed armed forces, Oslo will hand over to Kyiv 22 F-16 fighter jets, a major Norwegian news platform reported on Thursday.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/31010

Recent video has revealed MiG-29s in Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) fleet, even its Sukhoi Su-27s are dropping the French-made AASM-250 Hammer air-to-ground guided munitions on Russian ground targets. It Suppression Destruction on Enemy Air Defense (SEAD/DEAD) tactic, same jets are also releasing AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM), seen in publicity videos, possibly to hit Russian ground radars that are used to shoot down the AASM Hammers.

Russian Defense (RuMoD) has been publicizing rising shoot-downs of French-made Hammers since appeared on battlefield between February & March this year, first visual confirmation of AASM Hammer came in March this year it was seen on a MiG-29 in March,  followed by both Ukrainians and Russians reporting several successful hits and interceptions of the bomb.

Bombs expected to aid Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) effort to hit Russian ground targets at greater distance & lower danger to its pilots and planes.

AASM-250 Hammer
The AASM Precision-Guided Munition (PGM) comprises a guidance kit and a “range augmentation unit” fitted to standard 250-kg bombs. It is offered in three versions: SBU-38 (inertial and GPS guidance), SBU-54 (GPS-inertial and laser guidance), and SBU-64 (GPS, inertial, and infrared guidance).

The driving principle of a “kit” converts unguided, free-falling bombs into PGMs is similar like American Paveway or Russian Universal Module for Planning and Correction (UMPC) systems. The latter has been installed on nearly all FAB-500 bombs released fm Su-34 Fullback fighter bomber.

French defense firm Safran also offers the AASM on 125, 500, and 1,000-kg bombs. Fired at stand-off distance day or night, the AASM can be launched at low altitudes and highly off-axis and perform high-precision vertical strikes under all weather conditions. It has a range of 15 km when released from low altitudes and 50 km when dropped from high altitudes.


In the week leading up to April 5, Russia claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft, two Su-27 fighters and one MiG-29, Russia TV (RT) said on its Telegram channel.

On April 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense (RuMoD) said its air defenses “eliminated” five Hammer and the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) “aerial guided bombs,” in addition to the Su-27s and MiG-29s mentioned previously.

Video Showing Su-27S Firing Hammers & HARM
Assuming the claims about shooting down the Ukrainian fighters are true, and given the fact that UAF Su-27s are appearing in publicity material after a long time, it can be assumed that Kyiv is diversifying its aerial platforms for air-to-ground missions.

Even more interestingly, the video that showed the Su-27S dropping the Hammer also showed two shots of the Su-27s firing what appears to be an air-to-air missile. This can be concluded to be the AGM-88 HARM, as it has been clearly seen being fired from UAF Su-27s in other official publicity material and social media pages. 

Grab from an official video from Ukrainian Air Force showing AGM-88 HARM. Missiles is marked in a red box. Source: X (formerly Twitter).
The video, posted on X, claimed the variant was the Su-27S belonging to the 39th Tactical Aviation Brigade. It is seen releasing the AASM Hammer from the port (left-side) wing. A video from inside a cockpit also showed a missile leaving the starboard-side (right) wing and the aircraft banking hard right. Another in-cockpit video shows a missile leaving the port (left) wing, and the plane banking left.

These missiles are the AGM-88 HARM, as they appeared in another video on the official account of the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) on March 15. That video of the 831st Tactical Brigade showed a cockpit video of it releasing a missile from the starboard wing, which can be clearly identified as the HARM, from its distinctive shape.

Another video on an Instagram account identified as ‘ua_military24’ showed the same shots of the Hammer in action but also a cockpit video of the Su-27’s payload, where the HARM can be seen on the middle pylons of both the wings. HARMs are slightly hidden by airspeed probes on both sides of the cockpit in foreground but can still be made out by front fins. Su-27s were spotted flying with the HARMS in September 2022 after they were integrated into UAF’s MiG-29s. 

Tactics. Latest video showing Su-27S-Hammer ops, it certain there is a pair of two jets, one Su-27 is recorded on video dropping bomb. While it appears the Su-27S releasing Hammer is not the one firing HARM too, it nevertheless represents an intriguing tactic.

🇺🇦Ukraine's 39th Tactical Aviation Brigade demonstrates its Sukhoi Su-27S jets delivering strikes with 🇫🇷French-provided AASM-250 Hammer precision-guided bombs. If only we could have them (as well as many other weapons) at least a year ago. Based on proximity of ground & fields captured in video, planes are operating from low to medium altitudes for their bomb release runs. Flying higher might lead them to be easily detected by Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) Su-35 and Su-30SM patrolling 24×7.

Ukraine is trying to exploit Russian enthusiasm of shooting down Hammers by using bomb as bait for its air defenses – possibly Buk-M1-2 medium-range or the Tor-M2 short-range AD platforms.The gap time-lapse between Hammer & HARM release is not very long. Upon firing, HARM’s homing head is expected automatically pick up radar emissions from Russian SAM sites & guide itself there.