Russian Defence Contractor Reveals Dates of Airborne Missile and Cluster Glide Bomb Delivery

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The serial delivery of Russia's new Broneboyschik (armour piercer) air-launched missiles to the country's army is planned for 2021, documents for making it operational will soon be drafted, the CEO of Tecmash arms industry company (part of state corporation Rostec) has said in an interview.

"Everything is ready for producing Broneboyschik. Moreover, we have created a batch of these missiles for test exploitation by troops at our own expense. We hope that all the matters will be settled this year, and batch deliveries to the troops will start in 2021", Alexander Kochkin said.

After state tests of the new air-launched missile were finished in 2019, the state customer updated some of the requirements outlined in the design specification, Tecmash CEO recalled.

"All these issues have already been settled with the Defence Ministry. In the next few days, the preparation of documents for passing Broneboyschik into service will start", Kochkin said.

Broneboyschik is designed for planes of the Su-25 family and for Mi-8 military helicopters. These missiles are expected to complement the 80 mm-caliber S-8 unguided missile family.

New Cluster Glide Bomb Drel

Tecmash CEO also revealed that serial deliveries of Russia's new cluster glide bomb Drel to the country's army will start in 2021.

"We are now completing the state tests, we should finish this year. I believe the state customer will order some refinement, but the serial purchase of this item is planned for 2022", Alexander Kochkin said.

Drel can be launched by a carrier without entering the destruction envelope of the enemy weapon, and this is what makes the new cluster bomb unique, Kochkin noted. Apart from that, Drel is capable of reaching a target independently. It is equipped with self-aiming combat elements.

"Even if the bomb cannot find the target, it will destroy itself routinely and will present no threat for the population when combat operations are over", Kochkin explained.

The PBK-500U Drel stealth cluster glide bomb, which can be used round-the-clock regardless of the weather and does not require the aircraft to enter air defense facilities' coverage area, is designed to destroy armored vehicles, ground-based radar stations and control centers.