rance will have delivered a total of 600 AASM-250 Hammer rocket-assisted bombs to Ukraine by the end of the year, according to the French National Assembly Defense Committee.
The Hammers will have come from existing, aging stocks, and plans are in the works to quickly produce more.
“The production of AASM bombs must be significantly accelerated in order to renew the [French] stocks with new munitions,” the committee stated. “The Ministry of the Armed Forces now aims to produce 1,200 by 2025.”
In January, we wrote that France would send Ukraine 50 Hammers per month. The baseline 500-pound-class version has a stand-off range of up to around 43 miles (70 kilometers), similar to that of Ukraine’s U.S.-supplied winged Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range bombs, or JDAM-ERs
The Hammer bombs have been used by Ukraine to great effect. In August, we had our best look yet one of the country’s MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters employing these precision-guided munitions. A video released at the time, shot from inside the jet’s cockpit, showed the pilot utilizing a low-level toss bomb technique, which is one mode in which the rocket-boosted munitions were designed to be used.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Col. Yuri Ignat posted the footage, seen below, which shows the release of two Hammers, on social media earlier today. Ignat said he did so earlier than planned as a tribute to Oleksandr Myhulia, the Ukrainian pilot who shot the video and who was killed while flying a combat mission on August 12.
Ukraine is also using Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack aircraft as Hammer bomb trucks.
News about another potential tranche of weapons for Ukraine on the weapons has emerged, this time from the collapse of the German government.
Faced with pressure, largely over a weak economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a snap election on Feb. 23. A leading challenger for that job issued an ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his forces should end the fight in 24 hours or he would push to provide air-launched Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles to Ukraine. That’s a 180-degree change from Scholz’s position.
“Scholz absolutely refuses to deliver the Taurus missiles, even though a majority in the Bundestag sees it differently,” said Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union. “I am open to it and have suggested giving the government in Kyiv the right to say: If the bombing of civilians does not stop within 24 hours, the range restrictions on the available weapons will be jointly lifted. If that’s not enough, the Taurus missiles will be delivered a week later. This would allow Ukraine to regain the initiative.”
The Taurus missile, which offers broadly similar capabilities to the British Storm Shadow and French SCALP-EG, reportedly has a range of more than 300 miles. Ukraine has been seeking it as another weapon to strike deep behind Russian lines.
Germany recently announced plans to acquire a new variant of that missile, which you can read more about here.
Giving Ukraine Taurus missiles and lifting restrictions on the use of weapons deep inside Russia would provide Kyiv with a much-needed boost in its long-range strike capacity. Germany’s snap election comes a day ahead of the third anniversary of the full-on invasion of Ukraine. A Merz victory might be a hopeful sign for Kyiv.
Source: The War Zone
