Russia said it’s going to start mass producing a new type of cluster bomb that’s supposedly invisible to radar. Russian state media reported the Drel — or “Drill” in Russian — is a new type of glide bomb made by the state-owned Rostec defense conglomerate.
Drels are some of Russia’s newest weapons, so there isn’t a lot of publicly available details on them. They are aerial bombs, so they’ll need some sort of delivery system — likely strapped to the belly of a bomber.
The Russian government said the Drel achieves independent glided flight by using deployable wings.
The United States makes use of similar tech with Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs. Ukraine got some GLSDBs from the United States last year.
In Russia, the Kremlin said its new glide bombs are also resistant to radio jamming and can avoid radar detection, making the weapons more difficult to destroy if true.
Russia said the Drel is a cluster munition as well. That means instead of creating a single explosion when it detonates, the Drel releases smaller explosive devices called “bomblets” above its target. Those bomblets are typically spread across a wide area, killing or damaging anything or anyone close enough to the detonations.
Not every bomblet always explodes, though. Undetonated ordinance poses a threat to both soldiers and civilians for years to come. That’s why cluster bombs are banned by more than 100 countries. So why do the United States, Ukraine and Russia still use them? In essence, because they’re good at what they do.
When troops and equipment are in the open, a handful of cluster munitions flinging potentially hundreds of bomblets can take out large numbers of troops, equipment and lightly-armored vehicles — all without leaving massive craters or destroying entire buildings. The United States military said it limits the use of cluster munitions to military targets. There’s plenty of evidence, however, showing Russia doesn’t hold itself to the same standard.
While critics of cluster munitions contend the U.S. shouldn’t be sending any to Ukraine, the Ukrainian military essentially told the world, “Send us all you have.”
Ukraine is heavily outmanned and outgunned by Russia, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces see cluster munitions as a great equalizer in the conflict. Ukraine used a small number of ATACMS missiles carrying cluster munitions to take out 14 Russian attack helicopters at two different airfields in October.
Reuters contributed to this report.
