Ukrainian Air Force JDAM-ER Guided Bombs Are Ready For Combat
The commander of the US Air Force in Europe and Africa, General James Hecker recently confirmed that the Ukrainian Air Force received and implemente JDAM-ER guided bombs donated in the last weeks. JDAM-ERs are the newest long-range weapon system officially delivered to Ukraine. The number of the munitions transferred to Ukraine remains undisclosed but Gen. Hecker’s statements during a roundtable at the 2023 Air and Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium suggest that the delivery has enabled the Ukrainian Air Force to conduct several strikes in recent weeks. Last week during the symposium Gen. Hecker said:
“Recently, we’ve just gotten some precision munitions [to Ukraine] that had some extended range and go a little bit further than the gravity drop bomb and has precision [guidance], […] That’s a recent capability that we were able to give them probably in the last three weeks.”
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs of the Mk80 family into all-weather precision-guided munitions. Guidance is facilitated through a tail control system and a GPS-aided inertial navigation system (INS). The navigation system is initialized by transfer alignment from the aircraft that provides position and velocity vectors from the aircraft systems. Once released from the aircraft, the JDAM autonomously navigates to the designated target coordinates.
In 2009, Boeing began the development of the JDAM-ER (Extended Range). Standard JDAM kit enables delivery of the munitions over a distance of 15 miles, while the ER kits triple that range. Even before Hecker’s comments a number of videos of explosions have been shared claiming to be examples of JDAM-ER use in the field – most of these a difficult to confirm.
The Ukrainian Air Force has been utilizing other types of western munitions, such as AGM-88 HARM which were operationally unified with Su-27 and MiG-29 jets. Several NATO countries still use and operate a variety of post-USSR jets that had been equipped with western systems and munitions, thus, the integration of a new weapons system on the ex-Soviet plane should not be surprising. Ukraine is still counting on additional long-range munitions to strike targets further from the frontlines. The current situation on the ground, especially around Bakhmut, shows that still more support is needed to halt the Russian advance.