U.S. To Arm Ukraine’s F-16s With Medium-Range Glide Munitions – Report

U.S. To Arm Ukraine’s F-16s With Medium-Range Glide Munitions - Report

An F-16C of the 522nd Fighter Squadron, Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., releases an AGM-154 JSOW over the Utah Test and Training Range. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Michael Ammons)

The United States may supply Ukraine with AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) medium-range glide munition for F-16 fighter jets as part of an upcoming $375 million military aid package, Politico reported on September 20.

The JSOW, which is in service with the U.S. Air Force and Navy and a number of allies, has a range of 22-130 kilometers depending on flight profile.

The glide munition is guided by a GPS-aided inertial navigation system. The latest AGM-154C version also features a terminal Infrared seeking. Politico didn’t clarify however if Ukraine will be getting this more precise version.

The base version of the munition, AGM-154A, is armed with a cluster warhead containing 145 BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb submunitions, while the AGM-154B version carries six BLU-108 submunitions, each containing four further smart Skeet warheads, and the AGM-154C version is armed with a Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge, BROACH, multi-stage warhead.

The upcoming military aid package for Ukraine, which is still being finalized, will also include artillery munitions, rockets and air defense missiles, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the issue told Politico. The sources noted that the contents could still change before the official announcement is made.

The JSOW does not have the reach of the Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG air-launched cruise missile Ukraine received from the United Kingdom and France, or the German Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles it has long coveted. It is also not as capable as the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) air-launched cruise missiles the Kiev regime demanded for its F-16s.

Still, the glide munition could boost the capabilities of the Ukrainian Air Force to attack Russian targets from a stand-off range.

The effectiveness of the munition will however be very limited by the Russian military’s dense air defenses and advanced electronic warfare means, which proven to be highly capable against very similar Western-made weapon systems in the past.

Ukraine received the first batch of F-16s just last July. Ten such fighter jets were reportedly delivered to the country. At least one of the jets has been already destroyed.

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NDR7652

what did you expect especially since russia seems to like to allow ukraine to have functioning bases and aircraft to operate

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Beijing Biden

russia can only do 1 time what it is going to do and has to wait for the right moment. it will be very painful for someone.

AM Hants

remind me, but, how many functioning bases has ukraine got left?

Joseph Day

if the enemy wants to keep getting its weapons destroyed, why stop them. practicaly zero logistics for russia to worry about. ask napoleon and hitler about logistics

Stupid Pet Tricks

more important question is how many functioning brains ukraine has left.

Shaman

bases irrelevant in guerrilla warfare–few jungles or mountains in eastern southern ukraine

Last edited 3 months ago by Shaman
Crocus Shooting Gallery

the us can arm my colon with a medium range cock!

heheheh…

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Ramses

me too! yaaas!

gomer pyle

rammed likes taliban peniz in anuz

Yankee Go Home

there is no self control within these circles, ukrainians with atlantacist cartel. they are suicidal and homicidal at the same time. fool me once shame on you, fool me twice…///

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Name

they are cuttin the dicks of their children…. pure degeneracy. it’s all in.

SovietWarrior

ukraine-nato are waging a pr war. russia is waging a low-medium intensity war…everything in russia is better than 3 years ago: the economy, the armed forces, the industry, meanwhile in the west… russia will be able even to enlarge it´s armed force to 1.500k soldiers! with 700 thousands deads? russia now ressurect the dead! if a nato or a ukrainian is speaking it´s lying…

Wallter

taking off from where? any airfield within ukraina will be easily found by the russians and thus terminated before being a threat! on the other hand it can be be surmised that the disunited states of a is short of other valuable stuff and thus invite the neonazis to committ suicide with these glidebombs which after all has a rather short range from being dropped to impact which will allow russia to take out the delivering f16s!

Niccolo Machiavelli

no, you let them have one or two air bases either untouched or minimally damaged. then you know exactly where they are going to launch from (you already know – and can see – what they are going to launch). if you completely destroy their air capability they will come up with something else you will have to develop countermeasures for.

Wallter

russian ad/long range radars are in excellent shape and can more or less detect anything taking off from anywhere in ukraine or say romania and prepare its reception. why give up that advantage? there is not much the west or ukraine can come up with that will change the outcome of the smo. ukraine/uk/us/eu is f**cked beyond help!

AM Hants

how much support do american military jets require? can they handle anything less than a perfect runway? can any be found in ukraine?

Vegard

most likely they will penetrate from black sea. russia needs a no fly zone in the whole black sea and develop better systems of defense. crimea is inherently difficult to defend, and part of the reason is flanking from “international” air space and waterways

thewhiterose

good to hear, these munitions will burn nicely at the airstrips where they are delivered🔥🔥🔥

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aamater

ruskí spravodajcovia by mali zistiť kam budú tieto rakety umiestnené, kde ich budú skladovať. predpokladám, že už sú na ukrajine. lebo ak by mali byť uskladnené v niektorom zo štátov (zto) nato, tak aj tak by sa mali stať legitímnym cieľom. svetu mier!!!

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SovietWarrior

good! very good! with this range the western piece of junk will have to fly on the danger zone (aka within the range of the s-400 and mig-31bm) the kills will be beautiful!

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SovietWarrior

ukraine is done… there´s no question. russia is just waiting us “elections”… if trump wins ok. zelenskyy and nazis are done. if he loses ukronazis will soon realize what hell is… novaya zemlya nuke test range are already in place and soon a surprise will come!

SovietWarrior

everyone remember those fancy us-british five-stars generals that predicted the “fall of russia”… “that leopards will crush russian army”… remenber that old guy that predicted “ruble to rubble” i have all those predictions collected… they are liars and no one held them accountable… that´s why the west is decadent, not because of china or russia. because it´s psychotical and lunatic…

anon

no, no, sw, 97% of the russian army has been wiped out and the rest, who are always drunk on vodka, have only shovels left to fight with. they seem to be doing quite well with those shovels, though.

SovietWarrior

there´s not a single western/nato weapon that haven´t been humiliated by russia in this war. that´s why they are trying to ban telegram, to ban rt… west can´t handle the truth. they couldn´t even won a war against the mighty taliban! after 20 fucking years! imagine winning a war against russia, iran, north korea and china at the same time! the more lunatic are the west, the better for the free world! sorry europe, you are vassals!

q_prime

correct title should be us is prepared f-16 disguised as ukrainian fighter jets. none of ukrainian pilot can control such jet in a mere years.

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Vegard

i believe the biggest threat f-16 with gliding munitions pose is against the crimean bridge. the crimean bridge and crimea itself is notoriously difficult to defend. if i were russia, i would figure out a way to secure crimea, to secure the inherent vulnerability of air defenses in that isolated area with more robust underground high tech bases that can at least withstand mass drone swarm attacks

anon

the day cannot come too soon when america descends into financial bankruptcy and complete political, social and moral collapse. already it is not far off a dystopic failed state. currency rejected by the rest of the planet, reviled globally for its hypocrisy and double standards. crumbling infrastructure. vast disparities in wealth. deindustrialised, impoverished. $35 trillion in debt, $1 trillion debt interest. budget deficit over $2 trillion.

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anon

it will soon decline into an irrelevant backwater, unable to exert its malign influence over the rest of the planet. for the past 70 years it has rampaged around the world like nazi germany on steroids, spreading misery, slaughtering, starving and immiserating hundreds of millions. but that is coming to an end. the non west that makes up 88% of humanity has had a bellyful of america, and one day soon there will be an almighty settling of accounts.

Kibosh

hitler saved germany in 3 years, then the jews came back with a revenge…

Stupid Pet Tricks

super idea, that’ll bring them right into russia’s air defense asset sweet spots.

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jens cumball holm

amerikunt military arm their lgbt soldiers w dildos

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anon

rainbow coloured ones supplied by rabbi shmuley boteach. discounts for bulk orders.

Shaman

f16 defeated by non existent taliban air force

LoveTheSmellofBurntUkrainian

lol…. these ‘glide bombs’ have a maximum range of 70 miles (115 km) — well within the air defense range of almost any russian air defense system. the f-16s will never get close enough to launch those bombs. it will be a suicide mission for those ukrapistani pilots.

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apache

russian fighter pilots can’t wait till those f-16’s are airborne, russian pilots get cash bounty for each one killed.

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apache

what a waste of time for that all we’ll see is these jets on their mission get killed as soon as soon their airborne, whats amazing they found pilots for this suicide mission, by the time the missile alarm in their jet sounds it’s too late. kaboomski! ukr minus another f-16,next victim fly on over, now how many of these 50yr jets you got?

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