Ukraine Claims Solution for Downing Russian KABs – NATO Should Take Note

NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) recently launched its first Innovation Challenge for 2025 that calls for solutions to detect, intercept, or neutralize glide bombs. This was the 15th iteration of the concept since it was first launched in 2017 and has a closing date of March 13.

It calls for solutions to counter Russian aircraft weapons systems, specifically glide bombs, that use UMPK and UMPB D-30 kits to convert “dumb bombs” into KABs. It specifies that proposals must be compatible with existing NATO systems, standards and protocols requiring little or no end user training.

On Friday, Yurii Ihnat, head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) command, was cited by Ukraine’s Espreso news site as saying that Ukrainian forces in the Zaporizhzhia region had shot down a Russian KAB glide bomb mid-flight a day earlier. He said this was not the first time a glide bomb had been intercepted, without giving details of the current or previous incidents.

Ihnat said that Russian KAB guided aerial bombs use a variety of iron bombs launched from tactical aircraft out of range of Ukrainian air defenses. He spoke in outline about how the UAF tries to counter Moscow’s use of KABs:

“Countering this threat requires a comprehensive approach, involving both ground-based air defense systems and aviation components to push the carriers of these bombs as far back as possible.” He added that, in 2024, Russia had launched almost 40,000 types of KABs against Ukraine.

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Ukrainian milblogger Sonyashnyk (Sunflower) who focuses on air defense and aviation issues wrote on Telegram on Friday that the earlier incidents Ihnat was referring to related to the “skilled hands of the Cossacks shooting KABs with the ZU-23-2” – a twin barreled towed 23 mm anti-aircraft cannon. He suggested that successes in this way had been “few and far between,” requiring luck and being difficult and dangerous.

He then hinted that this latest incident was the result of a new, innovative “experimental weapon” that caused the bomb to crash on Zaporizhzhia’s outskirts.

He went on to say that Ukrainian forces have never had any problems detecting a KAB in flight and to recognize a falling bomb – even old Soviet radars can see it just fine. The problem has been reacting in time where firing guns are largely ineffective, and missiles either not being readily available or the wrong type to take on the target.

Sonyashnyk said that he wouldn’t reveal any state secrets but said: “Our bright minds have come up with an effective tactic” which does not rely on overseas “wunderwaffe.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky said as far back as April 2024 that countermeasures against Russia’s long-range bombs were being worked on. In July, Serhii Prytula, a politician and volunteer, said that Ukraine was close to deploying such weapons, which were already being tested and prepared for production. It is still not clear if Thursday’s shoot-down was achieved by a new weapon.