Even Ukraine's Big Boom Drones Are Too Weak

Fire Point FP-2s probably failed to bust Russia's Crimean missile bunkers

Multiple munitions maintainers from around the Pacific assemble BLU-109 munitions in the small bomb pad during the Combat Ammunitions Production Exercise on May 25, 2010, at Osan Air Base in South Korea. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Stephenie Wade

Ukraine’s Fire Point FP-1 and FP-2 drones are precise, inexpensive and flexible. The $50,000 FP-1 trades explosive payload for fuel in order to range farther. The similarly priced FP-2 trades fuel for explosives in order to hit harder.

But even the big boom FP-2 has a problem. With a warhead maxing out at just 350 pounds and a top speed of around 200 miles per hour over its 130-mile range, the drone lacks the penetrating power of, say, a 2,000-pound gravity bomb with a BLU-109 penetrating warhead.