Military drones are fragile, but you need to see them and hit them in order to eliminate this threat before they complete their objective. This rule was recently demonstrated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. By skillfully launching a $10 grenade, the operator successfully eliminated an enemy combat vehicle valued at $4 million.
T-80BVM is being transported using the railway. Under specific circumstances, even a relatively simple drone can eliminate such machine. Image from open sources via Defense Express
This kind of attack is difficult to accomplish, because main battle tanks usually employ a range of protective measures to fight off the unmanned aerial vehicles. Furthermore, armor plates of heavy military vehicles are strong enough to withstand or even counteract the explosions caused by relatively simple projectiles such as typical hand grenades.
For this reason, battling tanks with relatively weakly armed drones is not the best choice. Unless you aim very well.
This specific event happened in the Donetsk region near Vugledar, where the Ukrainian military employed an attack drone to destroy a Russian tank. A video of the attack was shared on Twitter by analysts from the Ukraine Weapons Tracker.
#Ukraine: Near Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast a damaged Russian T-80BVM tank was finished off by an improvised munition dropped from a Ukrainian drone right through an opened hatch- resulting in the catastrophic detonation of the ammo onboard. pic.twitter.com/fYLnyfTjcV
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 22, 2023
A T-80BVM main battle tank most likely had suffered some damage before. For this reason, the crew decided to abandon it. In similar situations, the standard practice of the Ukrainian soldiers is to eliminate such vehicles, especially if they are stationed too close to the enemy positions.
The operator skillfully maneuvered the quadcopter drone towards the T-80BVM tank and precisely dropped the improvised explosive through the open hatch located on the tank’s turret.
“This led to a catastrophic detonation of the ammunition on board,” military analysts wrote in their comment.
Following the explosion, a fire ignited within the tank, resulting in a subsequent blast that scattered its parts in various directions.
T-80BVM main battle tank. Image from open sources via Defense Express.
What is T-80BVM?
The T-80BVM is a variant of the T-80BV tank, which has been in production in Russia since 2019. Here, the letter ‘M’ stands for ‘Modernized’.
The primary modification involves the incorporation of the GTD-1000T engine, boasting a horsepower capacity of 1250. This engine enables the vehicle to reach a speed of 80 km/h and provides a range of 500 km.
The tank measures 7 meters in length (9.56 meters, including the gun), 3.84 meters in width, and 2.22 meters in height. The Russian military has equipped the T-80BVM with Relict dynamic armor, which makes it difficult to penetrate its protections using conventional arms, and the new Sosna-U sight.
T-80BVM being transported using railway. Image from open sources via Defense Express
According to official information, this model can also fire shells containing depleted uranium (Svinets-2 type munitions).
According to the open source community Oryx, the Armed Forces have captured or destroyed a total of 77 such tanks since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Written by Alius Noreika
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX Digital and is published from a syndicated feed.)