The North Atlantic Alliance has launched the “Counter glide bombs” competition to find solutions to counter Russian bombs.

The announcement was made on the project page of the NATO Transformation Directorate.

Within the framework of the Innovation Challenges technology platform, the opening of the 15th competition was announced, which will focus on finding solutions that will detect, intercept, or neutralize glide bombs.

The description of the event explains to potential participants that the promising solutions are aimed at countering Russian aircraft weapons systems, which are used in large numbers against Ukraine. In particular, the website provides a description of the bombs with UMPK and UMPB D-30 kits.

Interested participants can submit their projects by March 13, 2025.

Competition details

The defense ministry explained that it was ready to study proposals at different stages of technological development: from projects at the level of a ready-made concept to completed products.

The proposed solutions must be integrated into a single information environment and be compatible with existing NATO systems, standards and protocols. In addition, their interface should be intuitive, requiring no or very limited training for the end user.

The Innovation Challenges committee will be primarily interested in the means of detecting, physically intercepting, or neutralizing glide bombs. In addition, solutions that address problems in one or more of the following areas are also welcome:

• Detection
• Electronic jamming
• Preventing the aircraft from reaching the launch line (interception, neutralization)
• Destruction of munitions in the air
• Protection of critical infrastructure in the information plane (psychological operations, cybersecurity)
• Economic efficiency in relation to the object of counteraction

The description also explains that an important requirement for a new product is the use of new technologies, methodologies, or concepts that differentiate it from existing solutions.

The use of advanced tools, such as artificial intelligence, machine vision, or other non-traditional methods that improve performance is encouraged. The solution should also be easy to use and easily adaptable for deployment in different hardware configurations.

It is worth noting that in the event’s information booklets, the description of Russian weapons mentions the outdated parameters of Russian UMVC modules for 500-kilogram bombs, while the Russians use modified solutions.

In August, Militarnyi reported that Russian designers had increased the range of aircraft bombs thanks to modernized UMPK kits.