Qaem-5 bomb (Photo:Defence Express)
Russia apparently received Iranian Qaem-5 air-to-ground bombs, never previously used in Ukraine, marking a new step in Moscow-Tehran military cooperation expansion, German outlet Bild reported on May 27.
NV gathered key facts about these aerial bombs.
How did the Qaem-5 use come to light?
Bild’s military expert Julian Röpke drew attention to the guided bombs carried by the Iranian Qods Mohajer-6 UAV, which crashed on May 26 in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
Wow!
— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) May 26, 2024
➡️A Qods Mohajer-6 UAV, fully armed with Qaem air-to-ground bombs, crashed in *drums* #Kursk oblast near Ukraine.
➡️Iranian arms support for Russia at a new level. pic.twitter.com/pvDIQFrFRI
Röpke is sure the munition is Iran's newest Qaem-5 guided aerial bombs. The Iranian-made Russian drone was supposed to attack Sumy Oblast, but failed to reach its target and crashed in Russia before dropping the bombs, he suggested.
Qaem-5 aerial bomb use indicates a "new level" of Russia-Iran military cooperation, Röpke believes.
Iran's newest weapons: Qaem-5 bombs and Mohajer-6 drones
Qaem aerial bombs (not to be confused with the Qaem missiles) are air-to-ground glide bombs with a high-explosive warhead.
They are one of the newest Iranian developments and have been in service in Iran only since August 2019.
These bombs were based on Iran's Toophan anti-tank guided missile and are equipped with gliders.
Their main carriers are Iranian Qods Mohajer-6 drones (exactly the one that crashed in Kursk Oblast on May 26), developed by the Iranian company Qods Aviation Industries. Designed for both reconnaissance and combat operations, Mohajer-6 drones were first introduced in 2017, went into mass production in 2018, and are considered Iran's most successful export drone.
Mohajer-6 drones are capable of carrying up to four Qaem-5 bombs, each weighing about 20-25 kg.
The drone has a maximum take-off weight of 600 kg and a wingspan of 10 meters. It is powered by a three-bladed Rotax 912 piston engine ensuring a top speed of 200 km/h, a maximum flight altitude of 5.5 km, and a flight range of approximately 2,000 kilometers, enabling long-duration “missions”.
Qaem guided-bombs are available in four modifications:
- Qaem — presumably with laser guidance
- Qaem 1 is believed to have an infrared (IR) seeker
- Qaem-5 — with TV guidance
- Qaem-9 – a larger variant, than Qaem-5, also equipped with TV guidance.
The last two are equipped with optical-electronic cameras, which significantly increase the accuracy of hitting the target, but are effective only when the light is sufficient.
Qaem-5 bombs use optical, thermal, laser guidance systems and their combinations, which allows for precise operations in various weather conditions, the Army Recognition portal wrote at the same time. This type of a projectile can independently adjust its own trajectory for accurate targeting. The bomb is equipped with an 8.5 kg warhead of explosive material.
Qaem-5 bomb’s declared range is up to 40 km - slightly less than Russian anti-aircraft missiles, capable of flying on average at 50-55 km, BBC News wrote. The minimum operational height is about 3 km.
Warheads with fragmentation, incendiary and direct impact (kinetic energy) have been introduced for these bombs - this provides them with destructive capabilities of various nature, Western military observers previously wrote.
Iran showed footage revealing how these bombs are being used, the drone operator can set a certain object as a target, so that the aerial bomb can hit it automatically after that.
Ukrainian military managed to intercept and "down" the Qods Mohajer-6 reconnaissance-strike drone almost intact using electronic warfare equipment (EW) in September 2022. This UAV carried Qaem-5 glide bombs with TV guidance.
This “catch” was extremely valuable, because it enabled Ukrainian and Western specialists to study both the Qaem bombs and their carrier, the Mohajer-6 UAV, Ukrainian military portal Defense Express recalled.
Iran used Austrian Rotax 914 engines on such drones earlier, apparently circumventing Western sanctions, therefore, a full analysis of the Mohajer-6 UAV and the Qaem-5 bomb could allow limiting the components, used in Iran’s weapons, shadow export - "even taking into account that all of them, most likely, belong to civilian type", Defense Express experts noted.
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