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According to experts, Russia is reluctant to use glide bombs in Kursk.
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Ukraine has advanced towards Russia to create a buffer zone, but Moscow has struggled to respond.
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According to an expert, it is difficult for Russia to launch the bombs accurately because of weak air traffic control systems.
Russia is unable to fully utilize one of its most effective weapons against the Soviet Union. Ukrainian troops advance into their territoryaccording to an expert in military strategy.
That’s likely because Russia’s systems aren’t good enough to ensure it doesn’t hit itself, he said.
Russia has glide bombs fired more and more frequently on Ukrainian territory in its invasion of the country.
The bombs are equipped with guidance systems that allow them to be launched remotely from fighter jets. They are difficult to stop, and Russia has made them more powerful: the latest model weighs 6,600 pounds.
But Russia did not use the bombs on the same scale against Ukrainian troops who crossed the border into Russia earlier this month.
Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Russia has not yet deployed large-scale air support or glider bombs against Ukrainian forces in Kursk.
“I think this is a sign of a weak air control system,” he said.
While the US and NATO have “very sophisticated mechanisms” and a “very extensive, well-trained system” between aircraft and a control center to ensure they don’t hit enemy aircraft, that is not the case for Russia.
The U.S. is “pretty good at it. The Russians are not,” Cancian said.
Cancian said Russia can make extensive use of glider bombs in Ukraine because the front is static and largely immobile, allowing Russia to get by with a weaker control system and less unintended damage.
He said Russia’s relative caution in Kursk “reflects their inability, their weakness in using air power to support ground forces.”
Not to scale
There have been some recorded cases of glider bombs in Kursk, but not on the same scale as elsewhere.
The Ukrainian military said Wednesday that Russia had fired 27 glide bombs into the region. It was unclear whether this was the total number or just one day.
In any case, it is a much smaller number than what Russia is reportedly firing at targets on Ukrainian territory. Russia used 750 glide bombs on Ukrainian towns and villages last week alone, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.
It is also less than the 50 glide bombs Russia reportedly fires daily at Ukraine’s Sumy regionwhich borders Kursk.
“The Russians are hampered in one way, in that they cannot drop these fantastic glider bombs into Kursk as they have done in parts of Ukraine, particularly on the eastern front, because of course it is their own territory,” said Rajan Menon, a senior research fellow at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.
“They will kill many people. Civilians.”
George Barros, a Russian military expert at the U.S. Institute for the Study of War, told BI that Russia has not yet used the bombs in Kursk on a “large scale.”
According to Barros, the Russian attacks in Ukraine have “completely wiped out entire neighborhoods and cities in the space of just a few days.”
“The Russians are absolutely not doing that in Kursk,” he added.
But as Ukraine continues its invasion, Russia’s risk calculations could change.
Russia has bombs thrown on its territory and destroyed its own weapons since the invasion of Ukraine. This includes shooting down his own fighter jets.
But these were relatively isolated incidents and not something that resulted from a new strategy, such as the use of glide bombs at Kursk.
Barros said Russia fears the “political considerations” involved in attacking its own territory.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has began using glide bombs against Russia at Kursk.
Zelenskyy said the raid aims to create a “buffer zone” to minimize Russia’s ability to harm Ukraine.
However, war analysts are also told BI that Ukraine probably wanted to expand Russian forces and give its troops and allies new motivation.
Barros said it was unclear how the fast-moving operation would end. But he said it had been positive for Ukraine so far after months of grueling warfare with little territory changing hands.
Ukrainians, he said, “are no longer stuck in a rut where they no longer have the initiative.”
“It is no longer the Ukrainians who lie on their backs for more than nine months and just do their best to sort out the patients,” he said.
Read the original article at Company Insider
