Russia is due to begin production of long-distance cluster bombs capable of resisting radar detection as it continues its bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow will begin serial production of the The Drel, a glide bomb and cluster munition is already used in Ukraine, which can fly independently toward a target and take out armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft missile systems.
According to Russia’s Tass News Agency, it is “impossible to recognise on radar”, meaning it could easily wipe out Ukrainian targets without detection.
A spokesperson for Rostec, the Russian government backed company manufacturing the weapons told Tass: “The production of the first batch of the Drel aerial bomb is planned for 2024.”
Other details, such as exactly when they will be ready and be transported to use in Ukraine, are confidential, according to the Rostec representative.
The use of cluster bombs is banned in more than 100 countries worldwide because they can release a number of small bombs that can strike, and therefore kill, indiscriminately.
These can also detonate long after they are fired, although Tass has claimed the bombs self-destruct after a certain time and “will not pose a danger to the population after the cessation of hostilities.” Express.co.uk has not been able to verify the claim at this time.
Unexploded cluster munitions can remain dormant for decades.
The Ministry of Defence said that the cluster and glide bombs mean Russian planes can “release the munition many kilometres away from the target,” but also clarified that Moscow’s glide bomb kits “have generally achieved poor accuracy.”
According to the Insitute for the Study of War, Russia uses such weapons so troops can stay well behind enemy lines.
But in December the institute said Russia had clawed back on its use of the weapon.
“The decreased Russian use of glide bombs suggests that Russian forces are concerned about Ukrainian air defence capabilities following recent losses,” they reported in an update on December 24.
Ukraine has recieved similar cluster munitions as part of arms aid from the United States, but pledged to only use them to “dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers”, according to a report by Reuters.
