Unmanned Aerial Vehicle The latest drone news
Main battle tanks are big, powerful and expensive. Even though tanks appeared during the First World War, they are still the kinds of every battlefield. Russia has infinitely more tanks than Ukraine can gather, but the defenders of Ukraine come up with new creative ways to defeat the Russian armour.
A destroyed T-72 in Ukraine, being reclaimed by nature. Image credit: OSINTWiki via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
If you’ve followed the war in Ukraine with any kind of level of interest, you know that the current weapon of choice for the defenders of Ukraine are so-called FPV drones. These are relatively small UAVs made up from commercially available parts, usually borrowed from the world of racing drones. Small FPV drones with smaller charges attack individual soldiers, while larger ones can successfully engage even armoured vehicles. Hundreds of Russian tanks were burned to the ground by the Ukrainian drones.
The cost of Russian tanks varies widely from somewhere around 0.5 to 5 million dollars or so. However, they can be defeated by drones costing not much more than 550-600 dollars. And the defenders of Ukraine never stop showing their ingenuity upon the problematic ammunition shortages.
Here’s what recently appeared online:
Image credit: @NOELreports
What you see here is a fixed-wing drone with an RPG-7 warhead instead of a conventional nose. The RPG-7, in service since 1961, has a variety of ammunition and is produced in 9 countries. It is such a ubiquitous weapon there is virtually no chance that Ukraine would run out of RPG-7 grenades. And they are quite cheap, in comparison to more advanced weapons.
Can such a drone knock out a tank? Yes, very much so. It is very accurate, because, of course, it is controlled during the entire flight. RPG-7 anti-tank rounds have immobilized several M1A2 Abrams tanks in Afghanistan. T-72 doesn’t have that good of an armour. Of course, Russians are protecting their tanks with reactive armour tiles, but drones can pick out the weakest spots. Previously Ukrainians were mounting RPG-7 rounds and even anti-tank mines on quadcopter drones, but the advantage of a fixed-wing solution is speed. And, probably, cheapness and range too.
You can see that these drones are constructed in a cheap way. They have simple wings with minimal control surfaces and a V-tail. These drones are powered by a pusher propeller. You can also see the camera right above the RPG-7 grenade.
Ukraine is becoming one of the leading producers of cheap military drones. This kind of a device can be packed away in a small backpack and can strike a tank very precisely, while costing probably well under a 1,000 dollars. Sure, guided missiles are more powerful, but one Javelin will cost 150 or even 200 times more.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: NOELreports Twitter, Wikipedia
