Overview
- Ukraine announced Monday that its first homegrown guided glide bomb passed tests and is cleared for combat, with an experimental batch already purchased and pilots training.
- The weapon carries a 250 kilogram warhead and is designed to hit fortifications and command posts tens of kilometers from release, as a test video showed a Su-24 drop and glide to a target.
- DG Industry built the bomb under the state-backed Brave1 program in roughly 17 months, and officials describe it as an original Ukrainian design.
- Business Insider reported the name Vyrivniuvach and said industry pegs the unit cost at about one-third of a US JDAM-ER, with potential F-16 and Mirage use pending certification.
- Officials present the munition as a way to counter Russia’s widespread glide-bomb use and to conserve scarce Western stocks, while independent proof of combat performance and mass production capacity is still pending.