A guided glide kit for Soviet/Russian bombs was first proposed by
NPO Bazalt in 2002 as a low-cost device that could be fitted to bombs to increase their range and accuracy. Its prototype was first displayed at the
Farnborough Airshow. The kit, then called the MPK, included four variants ranging in price and capabilities: the first module consisted of just retractable wings; the second added a simple
inertial navigation system; the third included
satellite navigation; and the fourth had a
pulsejet engine. The project was displayed for several years but was never put into production, probably because the Russian military did not anticipate prolonged conflicts requiring large quantities of cheap armaments, and because Russian defense contractors preferred to produce more expensive and profitable guided bombs. bombs with UMPK kits deploying their wings At the beginning of January 2023, Russian users on social networks shared 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 more often. Russian planes drop them from 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 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.
UMPB D-30SN In March 2024, photos of the wreckage of a previously 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 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 (, Versatile intermediate gliding munition). According to 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 the release point allowed to estimate that the attack range of the UMPB could be up to , which is 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.
Ukrainian program In June 2024, 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 a possible rocket booster or a jet engine. On 25 June 2025, Ukrainian defense contractor KB Medoid unveiled a glide bomb kit for
FAB-500 bombs with a range of 60 kilometers. The kit closely mirrors the UMPK and was likely reverse-engineered from captured Russian kits. The developers plan to integrate French technology to avoid
satellite jamming and to increase the range up to 80 kilometers.
Ukrainian countermeasures In 2025, WarTranslated author Dmitri Masinski reported on a leak from Russian pilot Fighterbomber on
Telegram that Ukrainian forces had begun jamming Russian UMPK-equipped glide bombs, significantly reducing their accuracy, causing Russia to need up to 16 bombs to hit a target.
David Axe reported on this for
Forbes, adding that the jamming additionally had disrupted Russian drones, forcing a switch to fiber-optics. In October 2025, Ukraine was testing a new interception system that combined drones, radar and Artificial Intelligence to shot down UMPK-equipped glide bombs. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed to have destroyed over 100 UMPK glide bombs between September and October 2025. == Description ==