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30-543: The latest variants of the FAB-500 bomb use the UMPK , a winged system developed after 2022 Ukraine war, for precision satellite guidance and increased stand-off distance. The FAB-500 was widely employed over Afghanistan by Soviet and allied Afghan forces in the 1980s and saw use during the 2011-2019 Syrian civil war , where it was carried by both Russian and Syrian warplanes. The M62 variant has been used by Russian military forces in

60-403: A FAB-250 bomb integrated into the guidance-and-glide kit, with inertial and satellite navigation systems, ailerons, and actuators at its aft end, with a jet engine and fuel tank inside the weapon as well. Russian milblogger Fighterbomber identified this weapon as UMPB D-30SN ( Russian : УМПБ; Универсальный межвидовой планирующий боеприпас , Versatile intermediate gliding munition). According to

90-578: A distance of tens of kilometers on targets in the front-line zone without entering the Ukrainian air defense range. In April 2023, an Su-34 accidentally dropped a bomb on the Russian city of Belgorod . Some news outlets quoted Russian milblogger Fighterbomber that the bomb was an UMPK-upgraded one. The UMPK was first publicly acknowledged by Russian MoD in May 2023. According to a November 2023 investigation by

120-517: A photo of the FAB-500 M-62 with an attached kit resembling a JDAM. The "artisan" quality of the kit may have indicated it was a prototype. At the end of March 2023, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force , Yuriy Ignat , reported that the Russian military began to use winged modified aerial bombs with a warhead weighing 500 kg (1,100 lb) more often. Russian planes drop them from

150-433: A possible rocket booster or a jet engine. The UMPK aerial bomb glide kit is designed to convert traditional unguided bombs into guided bombs to provide greater strike accuracy. The maximum attack range depends on the altitude and trajectory of the aircraft before being dropped. The current manufacturer of the module is not officially named. Perhaps there are several companies producing them, as well as several variants of

180-736: Is a guidance kit first developed by the Russian Bazalt Design Bureau for converting unguided Soviet bombs into precision-guided munitions . This kit is an aerial bomb glide range extension kit, similar to the American Joint Direct Attack Munition Extended Range (JDAM-ER) and thus it was sometime nicknamed "JDAMski" or "Russian JDAM". The guidance system and gliding function of the UMPK kit can provide ordinary aerial bombs with longer-range and more accurate strike capabilities. They have been widely used by

210-467: Is attributed to Matt Welch , who started his War Blog within days of the September 11 attacks . In the fall of 2001, the attacks gave rise to a "war-blogging movement," which favoured political punditry over the often personal and technological orientation that had dominated the blog genre up to that point, achieving much greater public and media recognition than earlier blogs. Most warblogs supported

240-499: Is primarily focused on the events of the military, written about by those with inside knowledge of the military, whether an active soldier, a veteran of the military, a spouse of a soldier, or a civilian with a special connection to the military. Milblogs often criticized the media coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq , seeking to correct what they saw as biased or negative reporting. Thus, Matt Burden of Blackfive.net cites as

270-429: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . On 13 March 2022 and 14 May 2022, FAB-500 bombs were found in Ukrainian cities of Chernihiv and Odesa . In March 2023, Russian Su-35s launched a number of FAB-500 M-62, wreckage of which indicated that they had been fitted with an UMPK , a glide kit involving pop-out wings. It is unknown whether these had an internal navigation system, or were fitted with wings simply to extend

300-558: The Russian Air Force during the Russian invasion of Ukraine . A guided glide kit for Soviet/Russian bombs was first proposed by NPO Bazalt in 2003 as a cheap device that can be fitted to bombs to increase range and accuracy. Its prototype was first displayed at the "Aero India 2003" exhibition. The upgrade, back then called MPK, continued being proposed in 2008. At the beginning of January 2023, Russian users on social networks shared

330-606: The U.S. invasion of Iraq , with readers chiefly attracted by the offer of perspectives absent from most news reports; the pseudonymous Salam Pax , an Iraqi national who was posting first-hand accounts from Baghdad, emerged as a prominent war blogger. Media organisations that started their own reporters' milblog at this point included the BBC , the Christian Science Monitor , and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . In

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360-483: The Ukrainian Air Force announced a similar program to create an analog of the UMPK bombs. Serhii Golubtsov, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview, that the wings, command module and GPS had to be worked out. In August, the Ukrainian Air Force released footage of a Su-24M testing a similar bomb. This weapon appears to have X shaped control fins and an outlet for

390-546: The British NGO Conflict Armament Research , the new UMPK has, among other things, a more complex electronic system including SMART navigation controller and Kometa satellite navigation module. In March 2024, photos of the wreckage of a previosly unseen Russian ordnance with the "UMPB" marking surfaced in Ukraine. Preliminary analysis of the wreckage told that UMPB is a type of air-launched weapon that has

420-559: The Middle East began in 2002. The oversight mission consisted of active-duty soldiers and contractors, as well as Guard and Reserve members from Maryland, Texas and Washington state. Its remit was expanded in August 2005. In Iraq, commanding officers shut down a blog that reported on the medical response to a suicide bombing that had taken place in late 2004 in Mosul. The Army Web Risk Assessment Cell

450-576: The Russian military establishment's performance in Ukraine. These blogs are notable for their ultranationalist and pro-war views. The Institute for the Study of War attributed their popularity to the Russian government's failure to establish an effective social media presence as well as its failure in preparing the Russian public for a drawn-out war. The Russian government has protected them from calls for censorship and has selectively granted positions to nationalist and pro-war milbloggers due to their importance in

480-863: The US-led War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War from a hawkish perspective. Milblogging was popularized by Glenn Reynolds , whose Instapundit was one of the most popular political blogs on the web. Some prominent milblogs, such as Little Green Footballs by Charles Johnson and Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan existed before September 11 , but made the war on terror their primary focus afterwards. Other notable milblogs included Dynamist by Virginia Postrel , KausFiles by Mickey Kaus , Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall , KenLayne.com by Ken Layne , and Lileks.com by James Lileks . The readership of milblogs dramatically increased in March 2003, following

510-514: The United Kingdom, and Germany. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , Russian milblogs became increasingly popular. Military blogs became accepted within a few years. Whereas Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was at first believed to be skeptical of military blogs, by 2007 president George W. Bush lauded them as "an important voice for the cause of freedom." Official oversight of websites maintained by military personnel deployed to

540-494: The blogger, "intermediate" means its standing between different types of ordnance and the fact it can be launched from various platforms, such as Tornado-S multiple launch rocket systems, as well as from aircraft. No other specifications were mentioned. In May 2024, a high-quality image of the UMPB D-30SN long-range glide bomb has appeared for the first time. The picture showed a Su-34 releasing four UMBP bombs. The location of

570-521: The bombs reportedly started in November 2023. According to the Institute for the Study of War , FAB-500 "hold an explosive weight of 150 kilograms, have a damage radius of 250 meters, and can destroy headquarters, warehouses, and concrete and reinforced concrete objects." UMPK (bomb kit) UMPK ( Russian : УМПК; Унифицированный модуль планирования и коррекции , Unified gliding and correction module)

600-505: The first half of 2003, CNN , The Hartford Courant , and Time were among the media organizations that prohibited staff reporters from covering US-led wars first-hand in their personal blogs for fear both of legal repercussions and of competition from such blogs. Most blogs that gained popularity as "warblogs" expanded their focus to politics and general news, usually from a right-of-center perspective, yet continued to be commonly known as warblogs. While milblogs arose in response to

630-435: The kit: Milblog A milblog or warblog is a blog devoted mostly or wholly to covering news events concerning an ongoing war. Sometimes the use of the term "warblog" implies that the blog concerned has a pro-war slant. The term "milblog" implies that the author is a member of, or has some connection to the military; the more specific term "soldierblog" is sometimes used for the former. The coinage 'warblog'

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660-618: The mainstream media was reporting. C.J. Grisham was among the first active duty soldiers to become a milblogger when he opened A Soldier's Perspective in December 2004. Within five years, ASP was receiving an average of 1,500 visitors per day (nearly 1 million in total) from over 120 countries and was ranked the second most popular site on Milblogging.com . In 2005, there were fewer than 200 "milblogs" in existence. In July 2011, Milblogging.com listed more than 3,000 military blogs in 46 countries. The top 5 locations were US, Iraq, Afghanistan,

690-723: The module itself. A unit costs 2 million rubles, according to the Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which is equivalent to 24,460 USD and is cheap for such a weapon. During its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is unlikely to run out of bombs to which it can be fitted, as it has a very large inventory of unguided aerial bombs . The heavy use of civilian-grade electronics allows kits to be mass produced cheaply but also makes them unreliable compared to western equivalents resulting in bombs falling within Russia, although safeguard systems mean detonations are rare. There are several variants of

720-491: The post-September-11 wars and mostly limited their commentary to them, some moved on to related political, social and cultural issues and continued after the end of the wars. Military blogs emerged with the Iraq War in 2003. Initially named "warblogs" as well, they became popular under the name "milblogging" in 2004. In October 2005, a U.S. soldier named Jean-Paul Borda launched the blog aggregator Milblogging.com . A milblog

750-446: The range to up to 70 km. It also is believed that these give Russian aircraft a stand-off ability to hit Ukrainian targets without risking exposure to Ukrainian air defences. As of May 2023, UMPK-equipped FAB-500 glide bombs have continued to be used by Russia in Ukraine, with up to 20 of them being dropped every day, and Ukrainian air defences lack the capability to intercept them. The full-scale training of Russian pilots on using

780-475: The rationale of his blog the death in combat of a fellow soldier and good friend of his, who died saving the life of a magazine reporter, yet had his death go unreported by the magazine. One milblogger chose to offer his site "as an educational service to the American People who wish to know the true story of Iraq and Afghanistan." Other milblogs cite similar intentions to report the news that they did not feel

810-488: The regulation that many of them believed to be too ambiguous. The regulations were updated in April 2007 but, according to many bloggers in war theatres, failed to resolve their ambiguities. Although the U.S. Department of Defense was initially concerned about milblogs as a potential OPSEC violation, it eventually embraced the concept and attempted to implement official versions of milblogs. Official milblogs did not receive

840-522: The release point allowed to estimate that the attack range of the UMPB could be up to 90 km (56 mi), which is 20 to 30 km (12 to 19 mi) higher than the UMPK. In October 2024, a piece of an UMPB was found in the wreckage of an S-70 UAV which was shot down by Russians after losing control and entering the Ukrainian airspace, indicating that the UAV was used as a carrier for UMPB bombs. In June 2024,

870-673: The same reception or popularity of the unofficial milblogs as they were written in the same dull language as other official publications of the Defense Department. In Russia, milbloggers (sometimes called voenkory , " war correspondents " ) have gained prominence during the Russian invasion of Ukraine , providing a greater level of information about the war than is available from state media. Blogs range from those affiliated with state media, which often provided information more in-line with that of government positions, to independent and Wagner Group -affiliated blogs which are more critical of

900-499: Was created to monitor compliance with military regulations. In April 2005, a four-page document of regulations was issued by Multi-National Corps-Iraq, directing all military bloggers in Iraq to register with their units, and commanders to conduct quarterly reviews to make sure bloggers were not disclosing casualty numbers or violating operational security or privacy rules. Some milbloggers took down or altered their blogs for fear of violating

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