David Hambling
A steady stream of videos on social media shows Ukrainian drones dropping grenades through open hatches into Russian tanks. Sometimes it takes several tries, but the video ends with a shot of a burning vehicle. Commenters sometimes remark that the tank was already abandoned, as if this meant the kill did not count. In fact, the systematic destruction of Russian tanks which would otherwise be repaired, turning minor damage into a total write-off, is steadily eroding the tank force.
Modern armies place great emphasis on being able to regenerate lost vehicles, with repair units at several levels from company-level sections with spare parts and tools to fix broken-down vehicles, through battalion workshops for field repairs to larger division-level facilities, plus armored recovery vehicles able to pull a 70-ton tank off the battlefield under fire, and other specialized gear.
Abandoned, damaged and broken-down Russian tanks are being turned into smoldering wrecks by a concerted drone bombing campaign GETTY IMAGES
The proportion of vehicles that can be recovered depends very much on the cause. If a vehicle has simply got stuck in mud or fallen into water (as often seem to happen to Russian armor) then it’s just a matter of waiting for a tow. Similarly, for a mechanical breakdown, the repair rate should be something like 100%. Such breakdowns are common; one point the M1 Abrams was breaking down on average after every 101 miles driven and Russia’s aging and poorly-maintained fleet may be performing even wore.
Many combat losses can also be recovered. If a tank runs over a pressure mine, usually a track will be broken or a wheel destroyed, a ‘mobility kill’ rather than a ‘catastrophic’ kill. More advanced mines can kill tanks, but these have been rare in this conflict. Even a hit by an anti-tank missile or cannon may disable a vehicle rather than destroying it.
During WWII German tank commanders would keep firing at a Russian tank until they saw a column of smoke rising from it. One WWII study found that around half of all tanks knocked out in combat could be recovered. The Germans were especially good at getting their tanks back into action, so the allies started sending out engineers with demolition charges destroy any damaged German tanks.
In this conflict Ukrainian forces have been adept at repairing captured Russian tanks for their own use – in October the U.K.’s military intelligence claimed that more than half of Ukraine’s tank fleet had been ‘donated’ by Russia. But where vehicles are behind enemy lines and cannot be captured, they need to be destroyed – and small drones turn out to be the ideal tool.
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The usual technique is to drop a hand grenade through an open hatch into the tank. This might take several goes – usually only hits are posted – but the supply of ammunition seems unlimited and the drones can keep bombing until they score a kill.
Various different types of grenade are used for the job, though not the small Vog-17s used against Russian footsoldiers. The weapons used include the RGD-5 grenade seen here destroying an abandoned T-72, or the F-1 grenade knocking out another T-72, or the German-suppled DM-51 seen here. This video shows a BMP-1 first stopped by a guided missile and then destroyed by a drone-dropped hand grenade.
More exotic munitions are also now appearing, like the U.S.-supplied 40mm grenade seen here, or an incendiary bomb described as ‘Molotov balloon’ which finishes off a top-of-the-range T-90M, and the RGT-27S2 thermobaric grenade used to destroy a Russian BMP-2.
Occasionally heavier drones are involved. One video shows a T-90M which was immobilized after hitting an anti-tank mine being destroyed by an R18 octocopter dropping RKG-3 anti-tank grenades, but usually it’s just a matter of a small consumer drone, a certain amount of skill, and plenty of grenades.
There is no separate count of just how much armor has been taken out of the right this way. Unfortunately, Oryx’s excellent list of Russian losses does not give a detailed breakdown of cause. Given that the list now runs to some ten thousand vehicles, simply keeping track of them all is a major undertaking.
Small drones are also capable of taking out tanks when they are not abandoned, although they are mainly antipersonnel weapons. But the job of the drone wrecking crews, demolishing vehicles which could otherwise be recovered, may turn out to be crucial. Russia can only produce a fraction of the tanks needed to replace its losses, so each tank taken out of action chips away at its fighting power. And if the videos online are an indication, the chipping is rapid, professional and relentless.
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