I’m not sure his ego will let him do that. I suspect he would need other pressure on him to go that route.
Good question. I don’t know if drones are routinely armed at launch or if they are armed remotely. This site says:
The drone is capable of carrying unguided aerial bombs on board to destroy enemy manpower and armored vehicles. The developers have improved the drop system, and now oerators can drop 82-mm mines from it. In addition to mines, the novelty is capable of having a camera and an optical-electronic station.
The drone can carry free-falling bombs - 82-mm mortar mines (4), the main parts of RPG-7 (6) or grenade launchers (Ukrjet development) adapted for dropping. The use of a drone increases the range of the latter to 150-200 km. Instead of weapons, the drone can take a camera on board.
Maybe @smithsb can supply a bit more info. He seems to be up to date on weaponry.
Here’s an interesting article about the rumored Ukrainian spring offensive. The speculation is that it’s going to be in the south. Possibly an attack towards Melitopol from Zaporizhia?
That area hasn’t been mentioned much recently. My assumption that an offensive would be in the east, maybe to relieve the pressure on Bakhumut, or to try to liberate more of the Donbas. It certainly seems that Russia has been mostly focused on those areas. Maybe Russia made a mistake by doing so, potentially leaving the souther front exposed?
An attack towards Melitopol would make sense, since it would isolate the areas west of there, limiting resupply to the route from Crimea. Ukraine could then liberate the rest of Kherson oblast and make it into a two front war.
I didn’t see the type of munitions in the description I found, thanks.
With a range of 100 km, I thought it couldn’t return and they just loaded up with 20kg of explosive and intended to crash onto the target.
The fuzes have to modified to work as free fall. Some of the safeties require setback as part of the arming process. The setback comes from launch forces; the propellant firing as the primer hits the firing pin when the mortar round is dropped down the tube or when the propellant charge is ignited in the RPG launcher - firing pin is triggered into the rocket motor primer.
Here’s the PG-7VM hollow charge RPG round fuze function - CAT-UXO - Vp 7m fuze. The pyrotechnic train provides safe separation distance and arms a self-destruct firing train. The fuze will/may have a safety cap, a removable before firing pin/wire with a ribbon. https://kintex.bg/uploaded_files/261.jpg
How the Ukrainians modify the fuzes is the question. The safety pins/caps can be removed when loaded into the drone. For the mortar, setback can be crudely overcome (the propellant charges have been removed) by slamming the mortar round base first into something hard and flat (the fins have nubs which should prevent impact with the primer. You’ll hear the whir of the clockwork mechanism. I used to do this in my instructor days with a bare inert fuze right after lunch - got the students out of their food induce torpor as I passed the now armed inert fuzes around Further afield, there is a scene in Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hanks and others are slamming 60mm mortar rounds on their bases to arm them then throwing the mortars at the approaching enemy soldiers/vehicles. Me seeing movie, “Hole S*&^, I used to do that in class.”
How they get the RPG rounds ready for impact; I hope very carefully. I suspect they partially disassemble the fuze to remove the pyrotechnic delay/self destruct portion. Tripler (our EOD guy) may have more insight into this and corrections to any of my above blathering.
Why didn’t they go off on crashing? They had to be armed at launch. Depends on how the drone crashed. Both mortar and RPG warheads are point detonating. If the drone slid in or went down vertically, the fuzes wouldn’t have impacted at the right angle to trigger the detonators. How far up in the drone they are carried (internal carriage) would also shield them from a direct impact on the nose (point). The rounds themselves are robust to withstand rough handling and launch forces.
The M1 Abrams promised by the USA won’t arrive until the end of this year or early 2024. I don’t think Ukraine can wait that long to put some more numbers in the W column.
Well worth the price! I knew we could count on your help on this. Thanks.
This link has some better pics of the drone. From the disturbed snow, it appears to have fallen straight down. No sign of it going in belly down and sliding across the snow.
Here are some pics of I assume is a smaller kamikaze type drone where you can see the plastic explosive and the ball bearing munitions.
The Chinese proposal doesn’t say anything about prosecuting war crimes of course as that would open a rather large can of worms for their own leadership.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian government are signalling loudly that they are about to start an offensive
Further afield, there is a scene in Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hanks and others are slamming 60mm mortar rounds on their bases to arm them then throwing the mortars at the approaching enemy soldiers/vehicles. Me seeing movie, “Hole S*&^, I used to do that in class.”
I knew we could count on your help on this. Thanks.
