A Russian tank exploded after being attacked by a Ukrainian UAV, the turret (circled in blue) flew far away (Photo: Forbes).
Destroying tanks with light anti-armor weapons used to be as much a matter of luck as it was of skill, according to Forbes . First-person view (FPV) UAV operators face the same challenges as infantrymen firing shoulder-fired weapons at tanks.
Destroying a heavy tank with a light munition is no easy task. However, images from the battlefield show that Ukraine appears to have found a way to use drones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to inflict heavy damage on Russian tanks worth millions of dollars, sometimes causing them to burst into flames.
Accordingly, Ukraine discovered the weak point of the Russian tank located behind the turret and sought to target it for attack.
Ukrainian FPV UAVs often carry RPG anti-tank warheads to drop on tanks. One of the most common is the PG-7V, which first appeared in 1961.
The PG-7V weighs about 1.36kg, which is small by anti-tank standards. For example, the NLAW missile's warhead weighs about 1.8kg, while the Javelin's warhead weighs 8.6kg.
Traditional anti-tank weapons often use large warheads to increase armor penetration and damage behind the armor. The principle is that the warhead penetrates deep inside and then explodes to cause maximum damage to the target.
The PG-7V’s basic warhead will penetrate about 10 inches of steel armor. That may sound like a lot, but the T-72—Russia’s most common tank—has about 15 inches of armor at the front of its turret and about 20 inches at the front of its hull. So an old weapon like the PG-7V has little chance of doing serious damage in a frontal attack.
Tank armor is usually concentrated at the front, where it faces enemy fire during an attack. Armor is thinner at the sides and rear.
An infantryman can only shoot at the front of an oncoming tank, but the FPV UAV operator can circle the aircraft and find a better angle of attack. The T-72’s side and rear armor is less than 10cm thick, thin enough for even a PG-7V to penetrate.
However, penetrating armor is not enough, what is important is how much damage the warhead will cause once it penetrates inside the weapon.
In the early stages of the war, UAVs carrying PG-7V warheads could not cause enough damage to Russian tanks, but this has changed.
Detect weaknesses
According to Forbes , Ukraine discovered that the weak point of Russian tanks is the ammunition storage area. Russian tanks are prone to violent explosions when attacked because the ammunition storage system on the vehicle is not well protected. When this happens, the turret often explodes from the tank body.
This is the result of Russia's use of autoloaders for the tank's main armament: Instead of having the tank crew retrieve and load the shells individually, the shells are fed into the barrel automatically. The tank requires fewer crew members and has a higher rate of fire, but is more susceptible to instant destruction.
Knowing this weakness, Ukrainian soldiers often control UAVs to crash into the ammunition storage area on Russian tanks to trigger a secondary explosion, causing the armored vehicle to explode. This area is behind the turret, where the armor is thin and contains a lot of ammunition.
Recent developments on the battlefield show the increasing danger of UAVs on the battlefield. Tanks are still considered important weapons in offensive and counter-offensive efforts and Russia will certainly make improvements to overcome weaknesses in the future.
However, the development of UAVs does not stop and new tactics are expected to appear, especially on cheap weapons that cost only a few hundred dollars such as drones, improvements and changes will be faster than armored vehicles.
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