China has revealed a type of domestically developed airborne munitions dispenser, a hybrid weapon that lies between an air-to-ground missile and a guided bomb droppable by an aircraft from a safe distance, that can release hundreds of submunitions that cover a large area.
Formally classified as a guided glide dispenser bomb, this highly accurate, modularized weapon weighs 500 kilograms. While it looks like a missile, it has a square cross-section to hold more submunitions. This design can also reduce the weapon’s radar cross-section, enhancing the weapon’s stealth capability, making it more difficult to intercept.
When dropped, the dispenser can open its wings, which can provide extra lift force and controllability and allow it to have a range of more than 60 kilometers, this means the aircraft carrying it can safely drop the weapon without entering the enemy’s air defense zone.
Each dispenser can carry six types of 240 submunitions, which when released will cover more than 6,000 square meters.
When attacking groups of tanks and armored vehicles, the dispenser can use anti-tank submunitions that can penetrate tanks’ armor from the top, or it can equip regional lockdown submunitions when attacking large facilities like airfields.
A typical munitions dispenser like this can disable an airfield for an extended period with only one shot, because the sheer number of submunitions means the whole runway will be destroyed. It is also possible that some of the submunitions will be mines, which will make attempts to repair the runway very risky.
This will provide crucial battle opportunities, because it means the enemy would not be able to make any warplane sorties, and the user of the dispenser can seize air superiority and gain tactical and even strategic advantages.
