The latest incident occurred on 10th October when a Russian aircraft dropped a FAB 500 bomb near the village of Neklyudovo in Russia’s Belgorod oblast.
According to sources from the emergency services of the region cited by Russian news channel Astra, a second Russian FAB 500 bomb was discovered on 10 October in the Shebekino district of Belgorod Oblast. No injuries or damage was reported.
Astra has calculated that this incident marks at least 128 air-dropped weapons that have fallen on Russia and Russian occupied territories in Ukraine between March and October of this year. UK intelligence reports had suggested that fatigue, poor training and unsafe tactics were behind the repeated accidental attacks on Russian villages by Russian military planes.
To counter Ukrainian air defenses, the Russian military has modified Soviet-era FAB Bombs with UMPK glider kits (Unified gliding module and correction module). These modifications allow the bombs to be launched within Russian territory by adding satellite guidance and wings. This update has created a recurring issue: the bombs fail to reach their targets in Ukraine.
Astra reports the FAB-250 bombs and FAB 500 bombs are most likely to miss their targets. These bombs are usually not explosive when dropped unscheduled and are destroyed later by explosive ordnance removal teams.
A Russian aircraft dropped the FAB-500 bomb on Belgorod on 4 May. The incident resulted in seven injuries and damage to 31 homes and 10 vehicles. The authorities reportedly hid the cause of the fall and the origin of the bomb.
The problem is not limited to small bombs. Early in July, the first FAB-3000 dropped from a Russian plane onto Belgorod Oblast exploded on a field near Shebekino. A bomb exploded in a field near Shebekino.
The weight of the bombs is indicated by the numbers in their names. The Russian army began using UMPK-modified munitions in the spring of 2014, with the confirmed use of the FAB-3000 winged bomb in Ukraine.
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