DRAMATIC footage captured the moment RAF Typhoons dropped laser-guided bombs on Iraq as the UK is set to give Ukraine its “go-to” weapons for the first time.
The high-precision Paveway IV bombs – used recently to strike ISIS and Iranian terror proxies – will be delivered as part of the UK’s largest-ever tranche of military aid to its ally.
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Costing £30,000 each, the fighter-jet launched munitions carry a payload of 500lb and can travel 30km despite weather or enemy smoke screens.
Footage released by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps shows the moment Paveway IV bombs blitzed an ISIS target in Iraq.
Shapps said that RAF Typhoons on a “recent routine Operation Shader patrol” used the bombs to destroy a rocket launcher system firing at coalition forces.
A huge explosion fills the screen as multiple bombs were dropped.
The Paveway IV are the most advanced version of Paveway family and have both GPS and laser-guidance.
A laser beam is fired at the target and the bomb will look for the reflected energy of that laser spot and zero in on it.
James Black, assistant director of defence research at RAND Europe, said its dual-mode navigation system “ensure the weapon’s 500lb explosive warhead can be delivered on target with high levels of accuracy.”
He told The Sun: “This reduces the risk of collateral damage… and also cuts the number of bombing runs required to destroy a given target, thereby helping reduce the risk of losing strike aircraft to enemy fire in the process.
“The weapon can also be fused in different ways, such as to explode in an air-burst over its target.”
The tried-and-tested munitions have become known as the RAF’s “go-to weapon” and will be sent as part of the UK’s new £500million Putin-pounding war chest.
The bombs also proved their skillset in January when they were used to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebel targets in Yemen.
First entering service in 2008 as part of Operation Telic in Libya in 2011, the Paveway IV were later used in strikes against the ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Air power expert Justin Bronk said the weapons service the majority of the RAF’s target sets – blasting air defences, radar systems, depots and command and control centres.
This makes them the “overwhelmingly dominant strike weapon,” he told Forces.net.
The UK has promised a record £500million for President Zelensky’s war effort, taking the UK’s support for Kyiv to £3billion this financial year.
Britain pledged more than 1,600 long-range armaments including Storm Shadow missiles along with 400 vehicles and four million rounds of small-arms ammo.
Paveway IVs were not included on the UK’s official list, but BBC defence correspondent Jonathon Beale said on X, he had confirmation the next batch would include the precision-guided weapons.
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Paveway IV is a joint development by the UK-based Raytheon Systems and Raytheon Missile Systems in the US.
It is hoped they will compete against Russia’s gliding bombs, which have been devastating Ukrainian positions on battlefield, allowing Moscow’s forces to advance.
With Paveways and other high-precision weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal, the war-ravaged country might be able to mount similar operations.
Defence expert Black said that while Paveway IV is a “useful expansion” of Kyiv’s arsenal, it requires an aircraft to drop it which is in short supply for the Ukrainian Air Force.
And, he argued: “As the weapon has a comparatively short range, being a bomb not a missile, it also still requires the aircraft to get relatively close to its target, potentially exposing it to ground-based air defences or hostile fighters.”
Instead, what Black thinks will have a more “transformative” impact will be the US-made long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles.
This, he said, is a “significant development, enabling the Ukrainians to strike Russian targets a long way behind the front line without the need for air superiority.”
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that the US had been shipped long-ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to Ukraine in recent weeks.
The £800,000 missiles are fitted with a 500lb warhead and can reach targets 300km away in just five minutes, three times the speed of UK-supplied Storm Shadows.
The bunker-busting weapons can reach targets “anywhere” within Russian-occupied Ukraine – potentially turning the tides of war in Kyiv’s favour, defence experts told The Sun.
It comes as Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff said Ukraine will now be able to ramp up long-range strikes inside Russia as billions of pounds worth of new weapons flood in.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin signalled that Britain had no opposition to the attacks on Russian soil.
Meanwhile, a tranche of fresh US weapons could be reaching Ukraine’s frontline in “just days”, US officials said.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed a bill to provide Ukraine with a £50billion war chest ahead of a new Russian offensive.
After six months of bitter deadlock in Congress, Biden was finally able to clear the way for desperately needed artillery, missiles and air defense munitions to head for Kyiv.
The announcement brought relief along Ukraine’s 600-mile front after Kyiv had to painfully ration its weapons, leaving its forces vulnerable to deadly Russian attacks.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed it as a historic decision “that keeps history on the right track” against “Russian evil”.
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