The Ukrainian news agency Militarnyl reported that the Ukrainian military used French-supplied AASM 250 guided bombs on Russian troops for the first time.
Alleged footage of Ukraine striking the Avdiivka coke plant using these guided bombs has emerged on social media.
On January 16, French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that France would send 50 Hammer guided munitions monthly from January onwards.
French AASM-250 gliding bombs were first used by Ukrainian forces to strike Avdiivka coke plant, controlled by the Russian Armed Forces.
French AASM Hammer family consists of bombs weighing 250, 500 and 1000 kg with the ability to install rocket boosters and various target… pic.twitter.com/usu7163yv2
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 3, 2024
The Hammer is a precision-guided kit that can convert dumb bombs of various sizes, including 125 kg, 250 kg, 500 kg, and 1000 kg, into precision-guided munitions using INS/GPS guidance kits, with a strike range of 70 km.
While France didn’t specify the size of the Hammer munitions in the announcement, Ukrainian reports claimed that Ukraine used the AASM-250 variant.
Prior to this, the United States was the only country that had delivered these types of guided bombs to Ukraine, and Ukraine had been using JDAM guided bombs for several months.
Reports suggest that Ukraine is using the 500-pound (230 kg) JDAM ER with a 72 km range, which utilises the MK82 bomb body and is being deployed by Ukrainian Su-27 and MiG-29 jets.
While several footages of alleged strikes using JDAM ER have been circulating on social media, leaked Pentagon documents last year revealed that a portion of these bombs is being jammed by Russian electronic warfare systems.
Given that JDAMs solely depend on INS/GPS guidance, GPS jamming by Russian EW systems causes some bombs to miss their intended targets.
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Notably, the French AASM Hammer offers three guidance systems: INS/GPS, INS/GPS with laser homing, and INS/GPS with IR homing, depending on requirements.
Terminal guidance, in addition to INS/GPS, allows the Hammer to operate in GPS-denied environments, posing a new challenge to the Russian military.
Given that 50 munitions per month is typically a small number, Ukraine requires a larger quantity of such bombs.
