US plans on sending GLSDB long range strike weapon to Ukraine

As the West struggles to meet the demand for more weapons, the Pentagon is evaluating a Boeing proposal to provide Ukraine with inexpensive, small precise bombs placed onto readily accessible rockets, enabling Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines.

As the war rages on, Ukraine’s need for more advanced weapons grows as U.S. and NATO military stockpiles are being depleted. According to a report by Reuters, Boeing’s proposed device, known as the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), is one of approximately half a dozen ideas for putting new weapons into production for Ukraine and America’s allies in Eastern Europe.

According to a document Reuters obtained and three people familiar with the plan, GLSDB could be delivered as soon as spring 2023. It combines the M26 rocket motor and the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), both of which are frequently found in U.S. inventory.

Doug Bush, the U.S. Army’s top weapons buyer, revealed to reporters last week at the Pentagon that the Army was also considering speeding up production of 155-millimetre artillery shells, which are presently only made at government facilities.

According to Bush, demand for American-made weapons and ammunition increased as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, and the United States’ friends in Eastern Europe are “putting a lot of orders” in for a variety of weapons as they supply Ukraine.

“It’s about getting quantity at a cheap cost,” said Tom Karako, a weapons and security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said falling U.S. inventories help explain the rush to get more arms now, saying stockpiles are “getting low relative to the levels we like to keep on hand and certainly to the levels we’re going to need to deter a China conflict.”

Karako also noted that the U.S. exit from Afghanistan left lots of air-dropped bombs available. They cannot be easily used with Ukrainian aircraft, but “in today’s context we should be looking for innovative ways to convert them to standoff capability.”

Even though a small number of GLSDB units have already been produced, official procurement faces numerous logistical challenges. A price discovery waiver is necessary under the Boeing proposal, exempting the contractor from a thorough evaluation that would guarantee the Pentagon is obtaining the best possible offer. Any arrangement would also need at least six suppliers to rush shipments of their products in order to create the weapon as soon as possible.

A spokeswoman for Boeing declined to comment. Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, would to comment on offering Ukraine any “particular capability,” but he did say that the United States and its allies “identify and consider the most appropriate systems” to aid Kyiv.

The GLSDB, which SAAB AB and Boeing jointly produce, has been in development since well before the invasion, which Russia refers to as a “special operation,” since 2019. Micael Johansson, the CEO of SAAB, said of the GLSDB in October: “We are imminently shortly expecting contracts on that.”

The main parts of the GLSDB would be sourced from existing U.S. stockpiles, according to the paper, which is a Boeing proposal to U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which is in charge of overseeing the shipment of weaponry to Ukraine.

The GBU-39 costs around $40,000 per unit, and the M26 rocket motor is rather abundant, making the finished GLSDB affordable and its primary components easily accessible. Despite the difficulty in meeting demand, those considerations allow for the production of weapons by early 2023—even if at a low rate.

According to the SAAB website, GLSDB is GPS-guided, has some electronic jamming resistance, is operable in any weather, and may be applied to armoured vehicles. When dropped from an aircraft, the GBU-39, which serves as the GLSDB’s warhead, can glide more than 100 kilometres and hit targets as tiny as 3 feet in diameter.