The KAB-500L is a

laser-guided bomb A laser-guided bomb (LGB) is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser guidance to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. First developed by the United States during the Vietnam War, laser-guided bombs quickly p ...

developed by the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

, entering service in 1975. It remains in service with the

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

and post-Soviet Russian Air Force. The KAB-500L is a standard

FAB-500 The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead, primarily used by the Russian Air Force, former Soviet republics and customer countries. The original M-54 model was rolled out in 1954, shape ...

general-purpose bomb A general-purpose bomb is an air-dropped bomb intended as a compromise between blast damage, penetration, and fragmentation in explosive effect. They are designed to be effective against enemy troops, vehicles, and buildings. Characteristics ...

, which has a nominal weight of , fitted with a

semi-active laser seeker Laser guidance directs a robotics system to a target position by means of a laser beam. The laser guidance of a robot is accomplished by projecting a laser light, image processing and communication to improve the accuracy of guidance. The key ide ...

and guidance fins, turning it into an unpowered guided bomb. The KAB-500L is long and weighs . Its

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

makes up of the total weight, of which roughly 50% is blast-effect high explosive. Russian sources credit it with a CEP of . The technology of KAB-500L is also used for larger bombs, such as the

KAB-1500L KAB-1500L is a Russian precision guided weapon, part of KAB-1500 family, a laser guided bomb and also the current production standard for use on 4+ and 4++ generation fighter jets, like the Sukhoi Su-30MKI/Sukhoi Su-30MKK, Sukhoi Su-34 and Sukho ...

family. It is also deployed by the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

. The primary launch platform is

Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). A variant ...

. This bomb is also used by

Royal Malaysian Air Force The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF, ms, Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia; TUDM; Jawi: ) was formed on 2 June 1958 as the Royal Federation of Malaya Air Force (; ). However, its roots can be traced back to the Malayan Auxiliary Air Force format ...

on its

Sukhoi Su-30MKM The Sukhoi Su-30MKM (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a supermaneuverable fighter of the Royal Malaysian Air Force. It is a variant of the Su-30 series fighters, with many significant improvements over the original Su-30MK export version. Th ...

KAB-500S-E

KAB-500S-E The KAB-500S-E (russian: КАБ-500С-Э) is a guided bomb designed for the Russian Air Force and is also the first guided bomb of the Russian Federation. It uses the GLONASS satellite navigation system and is the Russian equivalent of the Join ...

is a

Precision-Guided Munition A precision-guided munition (PGM, smart weapon, smart munition, smart bomb) is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the First Gul ...

(PGM) whose guidance system is based on

GLONASS GLONASS (russian: ГЛОНАСС, label=none, ; rus, links=no, Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, r=Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, t=Global Navigation Satellite System) is ...

. The weapon can be dropped from aircraft flying at an altitude from 500 meters to 5000 meters and with an airspeed of 500–1150 km/h. The CEP is 7–12 meters. These bombs were used for the first time in the

Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war, and the military intervention against ISIL , image = , image_size = , border = , caption = To ...

in September 2015.

References

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External links

Asia’s Advanced Precision Guided Munitions
Cold War aerial bombs of the Soviet Union Aerial bombs of Russia Guided bombs Military equipment introduced in the 1970s