France to supply Ukraine with 50 AASM bombs per month
Throughout 2024, France intends to deliver 50 AASM bombs to the Ukrainian Armed Forces every month. This was stated by the Minister of armed forces of France Sebastien Lecornu on air of radio station France Inter.
"We will also begin to supply AASM aerial bombs, which are made for Mistral fighters, but which we have successfully adapted to Soviet-type MiG and Sukhoi aircraft. We will deliver about 50 per month for the whole of 2024, starting in January," he said
https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2024/01/18/1015618-frantsiya-budet-ezhemesyachno-postavlyat
Based Frogs. Will the Bongs even bother trying to outdo this?
>source ends in .ru
>Bong autistic screeching
Good morning sir
Those bombs have range of 15 km in low altitudes and 50-70 in high.
Ukies must have plans to disable Russian AA to allow lots of bombing runs.
>range of 15 km in low altitudes and 50-70 in high.
>Ukies must have plans to disable Russian AA to allow lots of bombing runs.
Or to just toss them. Or some combination of the two.
>We will also begin to supply AASM aerial bombs
The AASM was only ever declared operational on the Rafale and the Moroccan Mirage F1, although tested from the Mirage 2000 and the F-16.
So the french MoD just accidentally revealed the fact either France will deliver some upgraded Mirage 2000 able to deliver the AASM, or some Rafale, since France has no more remaining Mirage F1, or the AASM was made fully operational for the F-16.
It's more of a missile than a bomb since it has a rocket engine, which can be removed though. NATO considers the 3 variants of the AASM/Hammer to be SBU.
kek
God I hope France actually delivers like 4 Rafale to Ukraine. It got it all. SCALP, AASM 250, 500, 1000, AM-39 Exocet, GBU-12, 16, 22, 24, 49, MICA RF and IR, Meteor, Areos Recce pod, Damoclès and Talios designation pods.
Easily serviceable, extremely high readiness during surge time, can operate from roads if needed, discreet, extremely potent EW suite, excellent Situational Awareness. Shit would be so cash. The two more weeks meme would become true.
Pretty please Macron, I want the internet to erupt, and not just russians.
>So the french MoD just accidentally revealed the fact either France will deliver some upgraded Mirage 2000 able to deliver the AASM, or some Rafale, since France has no more remaining Mirage F1, or the AASM was made fully operational for the F-16.
"which we have successfully adapted to Soviet-type MiG and Sukhoi aircraft."
Mistral thing may actually be legit. If they were intentionally or otherwise backwards compatible to Mistral (I dread to think a compatibility decision was taken but its almost possible -1970s?) - then they will be easily adaptable to MiG.
Conversation something like "how primitive an aircraft can we use these things with?" - "They would be compatible with Mistral honhonhon" and that got all the way into the Ministers briefing notes.
>which we have successfully adapted to Soviet-type MiG and Sukhoi aircraft.
>Mistral fighters
WTF that makes no sense. How old are these fricking bombs? They must be total pieces of shit.
Probably meant Mirage fighters.
>Unit cost €164,000
Why are these gliders so much more expensive compared to JDAM?
They glide. They have a small rocket motor to boost range, compared to a regular dropped bomb.
>arretez!
>temps de marteau
JDAMs get cheaper due to economies of scale
Just like F-35 (or F-16 before it) against any competitor
small production volume
no1 reason why Rafale is an expensive system
some frog told me in the other thread that the price is going down
Yes, they used to be very expensive, more expensive than F-35s when those planes were new and considered expensive.
But new F4s are now cheap in comparison.
There are 3 variants for the Mk82 version anon. SBU-38 guidance is Inertial GPS, SBU-54 is INS GPS laser, SBU-64 is INS GPS IR.
The cost between the 3 variants varies wildly. The baseline version costs like 120,000€ nowadays, the IR version is like 300,000. It's not really a gliding weapon, as time to target was the main concern when it was designed. Its max range varies between, officially, 50 and 70km. When released from a low altitude it's more like 15km. The rocket engine is also optional and can be replaced with an inert mass. The main characteristic of this weapon is modularity. There exists 4 variants with 4 different sizes of boosters and guidance kits in 3 different versions, but only the 250kg using mk82, 500kg using mk83 and 1000kg using mk84 or BLU-109 bombshells are currently operational. The AASM125 using mk81 bombshells is not. Maybe it will be offered for drones in the future.
Pic related the 1000kg version which is now operational with the few new Rafale F4 currently in service.
It's how they can afford to sell Rafales etc. cheaper than Eurofighter.
The plane is actually more expensive but they offset it by the fact customers are forced to use French munitions, where they can recover costs by adding a big mark-up over what a JDAM, Paveway, AIM-120 etc. costs
The lore you guys are able to invent to cope never cease to amaze me.
>what is OPSEC for 500 Alex?
Sheer economy of scale. France was hardly building any stock at that time, worsening the gap.
But It htought wEsTeRn SuPpOrT tO uKrAiNe HaS sToPped! The cum/chug/gers told me so!
based. France stepping up to their size and responsibility.
>70km range at 33.000ft
>45km range at 26.000ft
>10 km range at below 10.000ft
yeah unless ukraine has already SEAD the russians i doubt it
On other news, 80 Caesars are being produced right now for Ukraine. Looks like Ukies like this canon.
https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/air-defense/la-france-va-produire-pres-de-80-canons-caesar-pour-lukraine-en-2024-et-2025-2047022
Any words on replacement barrels and the like? Long-lead items are akways the real achilles heel of arty
NTA
They always skip over these details in aid reports and it is infuriating.
Generally speaking, all of the Western aid comes with support. Parts, spares, repair contract with manufacturer, extensive training, ammo allotments ... name it and it comes with all the major equipment. Some packages may be more generous than others depending on the item and the source country, but when the U.S. says "Here's 50 F-16s, kid." it comes with an entire logistics support chain. The Leopards are another good example. There are contracts in place to send broken Leos to Poland where they get repaired (if possible) by German-trained techs.
I'm sure someone can dig up an example or two that are exceptions, but the majority of systems such as Archer, Patriot, Bradleys, etc. are part of a package, and the actual fighting unit is just the visible tip.
It's also why, when a system is announced, that there is some delay between the announcement and it appearing on the battlefield. It takes time for all that training and getting the full supply chain running.