Russia's FAB-3000 Bomb: A Powerful Weapon in the Ukraine Conflict
Russia has once again highlighted one of its most formidable conventional weapons by releasing a video that purportedly shows a FAB-3000 glide bomb hitting Ukrainian targets near the frontline town of Orikhiv. The footage, shared by Russia's defense ministry on Monday, captures a massive explosion, followed by a visible shockwave and thick plumes of black smoke. In the 20-second clip, a pilot remarks, "It's hard to imagine a target that would not be destroyed by an aerial bomb of this size." While Ukrainian sources claim the bomb impacted a residential area, Russia asserts it was aimed at military installations. This release comes as President Vladimir Putin has promised intensified attacks in retaliation for recent Ukrainian offensives.
The FAB-3000 is a high-explosive aerial bomb weighing 3,000 kg, originally developed during the Soviet era. Its name translates to "High-Explosive Aviation Bomb," with the number indicating its weight. Approximately 1.2 to 1.4 tonnes of the bomb consists of explosives, while the rest is made up of its steel casing and other components. This weapon is designed to obliterate heavily fortified targets, military infrastructure, industrial sites, and troop concentrations.
Although the FAB-3000 was first deployed during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, it had been largely inactive for many years. Its reintroduction occurred during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where it was initially used as an unguided bomb in April 2022. One of its first notable uses was during the siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. In February 2024, Russia resumed mass production of this weapon, enhancing it with the Universal Planning and Correction Module (UMPK), which allows it to be used as a steerable glide bomb. This modification enables aircraft to deploy the bomb from significant distances, keeping them out of reach of many Ukrainian air-defense systems. Analysts suggest that this upgrade has revitalized the effectiveness of large Soviet-era bombs on the battlefield.