A new Russian guided aerial bomb has raised alarm in Ukraine. Any city hundreds of kilometres from launch zones could now be at risk, but a solution has been proposed by Ukrainian Army General and former head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Mykola Malomuzh, 24 channel reports. 

According to previous reports, Russians have managed to retrofit Soviet aerial bombs with UMPK kits with modern Chinese rocket motors. These motors are not banned goods since they are also used for model aviation.

Take out the launch platforms — the general’s view

One of the most effective countermeasures, General Malomuzh says, is destroying the delivery platforms — Russia’s tactical aviation. For that, Ukraine needs long-range weapons, such as drones and missiles. But there is another approach. 

The expert explains that a key line of defence against the new KABs is acquiring modern electronic warfare systems of generations 3–6 from the US and Germany.

These American and German systems create an “electronic sky” that disorients the guidance systems of enemy drones and missiles. The systems can penetrate their control and redirect them to other targets, including enemy assets.

“This is a high level of technology that the Americans have not yet provided us,” the general emphasized.

Although passive tactics in their nature, such weapons can actively counter all types of drones and guided or unguided rockets.

“These are not systems that would frighten Russia into collapse, confrontation, or escalation,” the general stressed.

Destroying production sites is also effective

Malomuzh noted that Ukrainians have already learned to shoot down KABs, but because the new KABs are rocket-powered, a comprehensive approach is needed.

A combined approach should include:

• destroying KAB production sites;
• locating and striking launch platforms using reconnaissance and long-range drones.

Russia has not yet created mass air-defences around these production sites, so they can still be effectively targeted.

Longer warning zones for civilians

Earlier, Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that air-raid alarms in Kharkiv Oblast will now be activated for communities located within 150 km of a KAB carrier if an aviation strike threat emerges, a response to the new KAB threat.

Recently, a KAB was used for the first time against the Lozova community in Kharkiv Oblast, per Suspilne. Syniehubov said that the munition covered roughly 140 km, which is effectively a record distance. While the weapon is not precise, civilians still suffer: a strike hit a residential house, and people were injured.

He added that there have been instances of KABs flying over Kharkiv city, but ranges beyond 140 km have been unprecedented until now.