What Are JDAMs? And What Will They Do For Ukraine?

Ukrainian pilots will soon be flying Russian-made jets to kill Russian soldiers, using an American weapon first dropped by stealth bombers over Kosovo in 1999.

A cheap unguided bomb is turned into a highly accurate, gps-guided weapon by using a kit. It is often referred to as Jdam.

The Biden administration said this week that the weapons would be part of a new $1.85 billion military aid package.

The bomb can travel about 15 miles before it explodes.

U.S. and NATO warplanes are capable of carrying multiple JDAMs on a single mission.

A kit that is bolted onto the U.S. military's Mark-80-series bomb can be turned into a gps-guided weapon.

The Mark-80 warhead was designed to be easy to fit with a variety of tail fins and fuzes. Low-level bombing, to turn them into land and sea mines, and finally into various types of guided weapons have been included over the years.

The Mark-80 warhead was designed just after World War II as a modular weapon that could be fitted with different kinds of tail fins and fuzes. It comes in three different sizes. It is not clear which model will be given to Ukraine.

JDAMs have been improved since their first use. They can use fuzes to control whether they explode above the ground, on the surface or after burrowing into the ground. A pair of wings that open after a bomb is dropped can allow a kit to fly more than 40 miles.

The Pentagon calculates that they are inexpensive. The average price of the basic JDAM kit is just over $24,000 each.

During Desert Storm in 1991, pilots and Air Force leaders were frustrated with a different type of bomb.

The bomb was first used in small numbers during the Vietnam War. At the time, the idea was considered revolutionary: An expensive kit fixed to the nose and tail of a Mark-80 could make the unguided bomb maneuverable along the path of a laser. Sandstorms and smoke caused the bomb to miss its target.

After the war ended, the Air Force decided that military pilots needed a kit that was less expensive and could guide bombs in all weather conditions. A constellation of gps satellites offered a solution that could guide night bombs and day rains.

The JDAMs, which are now made by Boeing at a factory in St. Charles, Mo., are a result of Air Force leaders speeding up work on a similar device.

The issue is not the length of training or the cost of maintenance. The country's Russian warplanes cannot carry American-made bombs, and Russian flight computers can't communicate with American guided bombs, so there were a few fundamental hardware and software problems to be solved.

Since Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, some of its Russian MIG-29 warplanes have been converted to carry Western weapons, but they needed to replace their Soviet-designed computer systems and wiring. There was a need for a quicker approach.

The Pentagon didn't say how it made that happen.

The problem here was similar to the one shown in the movie Apollo 13, where NASA engineers had to fit different parts together in order to save the lives of astronauts.

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The bombs used by the United States and Russia are very different in design.

When a pilot presses a button, American-made bombs are secured to a rack that is designed to hold them securely at high speeds and to push them clear of the plane's fuselage.

Many Russian bombs have only one suspension lug, and the rack that drops them are incompatible with U.S.-made weapons.

The hardest part of the problem was solved months ago when Ukrainian pilots began shooting the American-made high-speed anti-radiation missile. The weapon is held to the jet by a pylon and other parts.

A U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard team called Grey Wolf is based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Quite a lot.

Carrying the bomb is important, but there are other issues. The signal that was generated when a pilot dropped the bomb has to be converted to an American-made device. Before being dropped, a JDAM needs data on the aircraft's position and speed as well as the target's location fed into it electronically.

Bomb racks and pylons are newer. One of the pylons used with the HARM missile is now in use by the Ukrainian air force.

Mike Pietrucha is a retired Air Force colonel who spent decades flying as a weapons officer on F-4G and F-15E fighters.

He said that the U.S. military developed a system to adapt an American-made weapon on a foreign aircraft using a laptop with aGPS device and a smart pylon.

He said that the same function could be accomplished using a tablets with a gps attachment and commercial flight software. The data would be transferred to the bomb.

More than 500,000 JDAM kits have been made by Boeing for the US and allied countries, according to the company's website.

It is likely that 500 pound JDAMs will be provided to begin with, though how many are headed to Kyiv has not been made public. The increase in Ukraine's precision-guided munition capabilities is marked by it.

The government is advised by a former Ukrainian defense minister.

Eric was a contributor.