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Russia’s New Jet-Powered Glide Bomb Emerges in Ukraine

FlyMarshall NewsroomBy No Comments6 Mins Read

Russia’s UMPK guidance kits installed on the FAB-series drop bombs now have a new jet powered variant, which can reportedly extend the range up to 200 km.

Russia is now using a newer, jet-powered version of its UMPK (Universal Module for Planning and Correction/Unifitsirovannyi Modul Planirovaniya i Korrektsii) kits for the FAB-series of unguided gravity bombs. The remains of one near intact example of such bomb, which may have failed to detonate, were found on Oct. 20, 2025, in the Poltava Oblast in northeast Ukraine, according to deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia Program John Hardie.

Leading Kremlin-aligned and politically hardline Telegram channel ‘Fighter-Bomber’, with ties to many Russian frontline units, identified the specific glide kit configuration as the UMPK-PD, and the bomb as the FAB-500T. Other accounts identified it as the UMPB-5R. ‘AviaHub’, another Russian Telegram account, puts this particular kit’s range with the FAB-500T at 100 km, and the jet-powered version’s range at 200 km.

Earlier images comparing the evolution of the design of the UMPK kits, as well as the latest image, also show the inscription ‘FAB-500T’ in Cyrillic/Russian on the bomb’s body. This puts the overall weapon in the same class as the P-JDAM (Powered-Joint Direct Attack Munition).

UMPK-kitted FAB-250, FAB-500, FAB-500, FAB-1500 bombs, dropped by the Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber in battlefield interdiction roles, have been used on Ukrainian ground positions since 2023 with devastating impact.

The ISW (Institute for the Study of War), quoting Russian reports, had said that UMPK-kitted FAB-3000, FAB-250 and FAB-1500 have ranges from 50-60 km to 60-70 km respectively. The UMPK-PD, like the kit on the other FAB bombs, is also largely crude, rudimentary and hastily improvised, possibly by technical crews of frontline units.

Russia’s UMPK/UMPC kits

These ad-hoc efforts might be financed through the communities of nationalist Russian Telegram defense channels like Fighter-Bomber, Rybar and many others. They have long crowd-funded everyday utilities and military accessories for frontline units from the open market.

The practice has the Kremlin’s blessings to unburden the Russian defense industry and MoD bureaucracy. Since February 2022, these bodies are engaged in funding, coordinating and producing larger capital weapons and defense components.

Experience from the earlier kits led to the appearance of the massive FAB-3000 UMPK-configured munition which appeared for the first time in early July 2024. A Russian Ministry of Defence (RuMoD) video showed it being released by a Su-34 on a Ukrainian ground position.

As we had noted here at The Aviationist, the RuMoD may have put together older clips of the explosion and the bomb’s release to reinforce the effectiveness of the weapon. Nevertheless, the munitions had become a headache for Ukraine’s limited Western and Soviet-era air defenses. President Volodymyr Zelensky periodically raises an alarm as they are running out while countering Russian attacks, until fresh NATO deliveries arrive.

The overall crude and improvised winged guidance kits eventually did find a more refined expression in the form of the UMPB D-30SN, which appeared in May 2024 dropped by the Su-34. This is largely analogous to the GBU-39 SBD (Small Diameter Bomb), which was one of the few Western and U.S. munitions that scored notable success against Russian targets despite heavy electronic warfare and SATNAV (Satellite Navigation) jamming.

The lack of an active radio frequency or infrared signature on glide bombs leaves little trace for surface-to-air missile and radar sensors. While Ukraine was constrained with limited Western supplies coming from their own armories, Russia had a massive Cold War-era stockpile of FAB bombs.

The RuMoD last year also showed then defense minister Sergei Shoigu visiting a factory in the Nizhny Novgorod region, inspecting the “increased production” of the FAB-500, FAB-1500 and FAB-3000 bombs.

UMPK kits evolution and UMPK-PD

The first UMPK kit, especially on the FAB-500T, had fold-out wings on a fairing that hugged the bomb’s body with semi-circular straps on both sides that met together at one point and fastened with clasps. The second UMPK kit had the same design, except that the fairing reached all the way to the bomb’s tail.

This kit, which was observed both in August 2024 and September 2025, was noted by sources to be increasing the FAB-500’s range from 60-70 km to 80-90 km, when dropped from an altitude of 10,000 meters.

The longer fairing may have been introduced to improve aerodynamic performance, better lift or stability. Both these kits’ nose section, believed to house the guidance electronics, however diverged from the nose and jutted out prominently.

The new UMPK-PD’s fairing on the FAB-500T however has a shorter front section, whose flat base sits perfectly on the bomb’s surface. The other half is curved, with the slope almost along the same line as the bomb, forming a very small angle.

The claimed turbojet section is the tubular end on the bomb that replaces the standard tapering end. A close-up of the engine revealed it to be a commercial-off-the-shelf SW800Pro-Y made by Chinese company Swiwin.

All three types of bombs rotate 180 degrees after being released, with the strap-on fairing holding the wings coming on the top. The new design appears to be made of lighter material and possibly, smaller, more efficient electronics.

Another technical evolution in the bomb’s guidance section was observed by OSINT and drone warfare analysis account ‘Roy’ in April. He noted the UMPK glide bombs using 12-antenna CRPA SATNAV modules in place of the original eight antenna setup. This made them more resistant to SATNAV (GPS and GLONASS constellation) jamming by Ukraine.


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