French AASM Hammer bombs bolster Ukraine's air strike arsenal
The remnants of the Ukrainian air force are conducting operations against the Russians, using advanced Western armaments. One of the most useful tools for Ukraine is the French AASM Hammer air bombs. Here we present their secret.
AASM Hammer bombs are most often dropped from MiG-29 aircraft, although there are also instances of them being carried on Su-27 and Su-25 aircraft. Below you can see a moment of dropping one of the AASM Hammer bombs and the effects of the attack on a Russian command post in the village of Lubymivka in the Kherson region.
MiG-29 aircraft and French AASM Hammer bombs — a deadly tandem
Currently, Ukrainians have a handful of newly received F-16 aircraft and the remnants of the MiG-29 fleet, which has been significantly rejuvenated with models donated by Poland and Slovakia. For this reason, these are the most frequently used aircraft for combat missions.
The Ukrainians preferably use American GBU-39 SDB bombs or the French AASM Hammer bombs on them. Conceptually, these are glide bombs very similar to the American JDAM-ER, but with characteristic French add-ons.
Besides adding a GPS guidance module with a new tail section and foldable wings to the standard Mk 82/83/84 bombs weighing approximately 227, 454, and 907 kilograms, they also insisted on adding a rocket booster. This allows the AASM Hammer bomb to be effectively used during low-altitude flights, which is not possible with JDAMs and similar solutions.
Normally, a glide bomb dropped under such conditions would have a range of only a few miles. However, in the case of the French solution, the range is said to be around 16 kilometres. This means the aircraft can attack targets protected by systems like Pantsir-S1 from beyond their range.
This is a huge benefit because the declared range of over 64 kilometres for JDAM-ER glide bombs is achievable when dropped from over 9 kilometres in altitude, and at such a height, the aircraft is clearly visible to the radar of air defence systems like S-300/400. The only form of defence is flying at a low altitude because of the so-called radar horizon, which reduces the ground radar detection range to about 40 kilometres.
Pinpoint precision in all conditions — A wide selection of guidance methods
The French bombs allow for accuracy up to 1 metre, making them effective even against moving targets. Some of the possible guidance methods unavailable to many foreign competitors allow for this.
The base is a guidance module based on inertial and satellite navigation, allowing for targeting only stationary targets. This is the cheapest option, yet sensitive to precision degradation due to electronic warfare systems. It’s worth noting that, for example, a deviation of even several dozen feet for a 907-kilogram variant is not as big an issue compared to smaller calibres.
On the other hand, two other options are already insensitive to jammers. The first is classic bomb homing on a reflected laser beam, but the problem here is the necessity to illuminate the target with the beam from an aircraft or, for example, a drone until the moment of hitting even a moving target.
The best but also most expensive option is the second guidance method based on an optoelectronic head that sees the thermal image of the target. The head independently searches for an object consistent with the loaded data and then attacks it. Therefore, this is a "fire and forget" option, allowing the pilot to evacuate from the dangerous area immediately after the bomb release. These bombs from France are the only such armament in the arsenal of the Ukrainian air force and have already proven their effectiveness many times.
