Russia Touts New Hard-to-Spot 'Drel' Glide Bomb

Russia will start serial production of a new glide bomb later this year, state media reported on Wednesday, after Moscow began widely using glide weapons against Ukrainian troops.

Russian state-owned defense giant Rostec will start serial production of the "Drel" glide bomb in 2024, the company told Russian state news agency Tass in an article published on Wednesday.

"To date, the product has passed all types of tests specified by the customer," the company said. Rostec had previously indicated it hoped to start production of the Drel in 2023.

Russia has used glide bombs in Ukraine for months, including around the embattled Donetsk town of Avdiivka where Russia is three months into its offensive against fortified Ukrainian positions.

The Drel flies independently towards the intended target, detonating at "the right moment," Tass reported. The Drel, in development since 2016, is designed to take out enemy armored vehicles, anti-aircraft missile systems, ground-based radars and control posts, the outlet reported.

"It is expected to be almost impossible to recognize on radar," according to Tass. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

The Drel is a type of cluster munition, Reuters reported, citing Russian and Western sources.

Glide bombs—and cluster weapons—have been widely used in Ukraine. Glide bombs are weapons that can be used from greater distances, also known as stand-off weapons, shaped to glide towards the target. Cluster munitions work by releasing multiple smaller bombs, or submunitions, over a wide area.

In late December, Ukraine's military said Russia had rolled back its use of glide bombs in southern Ukraine. The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggested Kyiv could take advantage of this to set up safer positions on the Russian-controlled east, or left, bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region.

Russia is thought to use glide bombs so its aircraft can stay between 30 and 45 miles away from the frontline, the ISW said. "The decreased Russian use of glide bombs suggests that Russian forces are concerned about Ukrainian air defense capabilities following recent losses," the think tank added on December 24.

The previous month, Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Tavria grouping of forces, told Newsweek that Russian Su-35 jets were operating "from a distance" when attacking the Donetsk town of Avdiivka.

Russia upped its use of modified RBK-500, a 500-kilogram cluster bomb, throughout November 2023, the British Defense Ministry said. Moscow had likely added a glide kit to the RBK-500, the U.K. said, used against Ukraine near Avdiivka and the destroyed Donetsk village of Vuhledar.

The modified cluster and glide bombs allow the Russian jets to "release the munition many kilometres away from the target," the U.K. government said, but argued Moscow's glide bomb kits "have generally achieved poor accuracy."

"However, with its large number of sub-munitions, a single RBK-500 can cause effects over an area of several hundred metres, increasing the chance of inflicting at least some damage on the intended target," the British Defense Ministry said.

Cluster munitions are controversial because they can place civilians in harm's way and detonate long after they are first fired. The RBK-500 can release up to 350 sub-munitions per bomb, the U.K. said.

Both Ukraine and Russia have used cluster bombs in the nearly two-year-old war.

"If the destructive element does not work on a given target, it will self-destruct after a certain time and will not pose a danger to the population after the cessation of hostilities," Tass said on Wednesday.

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