RBK-500 is a Russian 500 kg

cluster bomb A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...

. It carries 15 "Motiv-3" SPBE-D antitank submunitions developed by

NPO Bazalt NPO Bazalt () is a weapons manufacturing company in Russia that took over (or continued) the production of weapons such as the RPG-7 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. NPO Bazalt manufactures the RPG-7V2 and the RPG-29. AO NPO Bazalt is ...

with dual-mode

infrared homing Infrared homing is a Missile guidance#Passive homing, passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "he ...

system. It entered service with the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

in 1987. In November 2023, during the

Russo-Ukrainian war The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, Russian forces reportedly began deploying RBK-500s fitted with '' Unifitsirovannyi Modul Planirovaniya i Korrektsii'' (UMPK) standoff

glide bomb A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is a standoff weapon with flight control surfaces to give it a flatter, gliding flight path than that of a conventional bomb without such surfaces. This allows it to be released at a distance from the target rat ...

kits against Ukrainian forces in

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

, near

Staromaiorske Staromaiorske ( ; ) is a village in Volnovakha Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is situated south of the village of Makarivka and on the opposite side of the Mokri Yaly river from the village of Urozhaine. The population at the 2001 c ...

. It was the first time RBK-500s fitted with UMPKs were seen being used on publicly-available video.

References

Cluster munitions Aerial bombs of the Soviet Union {{Bomb-stub