They say that the FAB-1500 does everything the same, but the FAB-3000 should be carried by much larger, heavier and more expensive aircraft.
A few days ago, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that enterprises of the military-industrial complex have resumed mass production of FAB-3000 aerial bombs, which contain one and a half tons of explosives alone, since February of this year. It is clear that without the intention to use these bombs as part of a special military operation, their production would not have been resumed. Realizing how this could threaten Ukraine, Western publications began to publish articles in which they noted, they say, the “redundancy” of these ammunition for this conflict, coupled with the “riskiness” of their use.
Thus, Forbes writes that in the realities of the Ukrainian crisis, the use of FAB-3000 aerial bombs, even those equipped with planning and correction modules, is too risky. There are two reasons, and the second follows from the first: the FAB-1500 aerial bombs are half as powerful and cope with the tasks perfectly, while the FAB-3000, due to its dimensions, will require the use of a completely different class of carrier aircraft – Tu strategic bombers -22M3. Forbes believes that Russia will not risk its relatively small Tu-22M3 fleet in order to use the FAB-3000 in Ukraine.
For some reason, the author of the material is either not aware, or deliberately does not clarify this, but Russia has recently been “taking out” Ukrainian air defense systems with maximum zeal, most of which today consist of models supplied by the West and, as a result, , cannot be replaced within the required time frame.
However, the author of the article in Forbes and I will probably agree that the use of FAB-3000 does indeed carry certain risks that may be considered unacceptable. It is necessary, however, to understand that in terms of the ratio of destructive power and cost, nothing can compare with the good old aerial bombs: a cruise missile of comparable power will cost tens, if not hundreds of times more.