UMPK (bomb kit)
UMPK (bomb kit)
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UMPK (bomb kit)

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UMPK (bomb kit)

The UMPK (Russian: УМПК; Унифицированный модуль планирования и коррекции, Unified gliding and correction module) is a munition guidance kit first developed by the Russian Bazalt Design Bureau for converting unguided Soviet bombs into precision-guided glide bombs. This kit is an aerial bomb glide range extension kit, similar to the American Joint Direct Attack Munition Extended Range (JDAM-ER) and thus it was sometime nicknamed "Russian JDAM". The guidance system and gliding function of the UMPK kit can provide ordinary aerial bombs with longer-range and more accurate strike capabilities. They have been widely used by the Russian Air Force during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A guided glide kit for Soviet/Russian bombs was first proposed by NPO Bazalt in 2002 as a low-cost device that could be fitted to bombs to increase their range and accuracy. Its prototype was first displayed at the Farnborough Airshow. The kit, then called the MPK, included four variants ranging in price and capabilities: the first module consisted of just retractable wings; the second added a simple inertial navigation system; the third included satellite navigation; and the fourth had a pulsejet engine. The project was displayed for several years but was never put into production, probably because the Russian military did not anticipate prolonged conflicts requiring large quantities of cheap armaments, and because Russian defense contractors preferred to produce more expensive and profitable guided bombs.

At the beginning of January 2023, Russian users on social networks shared a photo of the FAB-500 M-62 with an attached kit resembling a JDAM. The "artisan" quality of the kit may have indicated it was a prototype.

At the end of March 2023, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, reported that the Russian military began to use winged modified aerial bombs with a warhead weighing 500 kg (1,100 lb) more often. Russian planes drop them from a distance of tens of kilometers on targets in the front-line zone without entering the Ukrainian air defense range.

In April 2023, an Su-34 accidentally dropped a bomb on the Russian city of Belgorod. Some news outlets quoted Russian milblogger Fighterbomber that the bomb was an UMPK-upgraded one.

The UMPK was first publicly acknowledged by Russian MoD in May 2023.

According to a November 2023 investigation by the British NGO Conflict Armament Research, the new UMPK has, among other things, a more complex electronic system including SMART navigation controller and Kometa satellite navigation module.

In March 2024, photos of the wreckage of a previously unseen Russian ordnance with the "UMPB" marking surfaced in Ukraine. Preliminary analysis of the wreckage told that UMPB is a type of air-launched weapon that has a FAB-250 bomb integrated into the guidance-and-glide kit, with inertial and satellite navigation systems, ailerons, and actuators at its aft end, with a jet engine and fuel tank inside the weapon as well. Russian milblogger Fighterbomber identified this weapon as UMPB D-30SN (Russian: УМПБ; Универсальный межвидовой планирующий боеприпас, Versatile intermediate gliding munition). According to the blogger, "intermediate" means its standing between different types of ordnance and the fact it can be launched from various platforms, such as Tornado-S multiple launch rocket systems, as well as from aircraft. No other specifications were mentioned.

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