Posted on 03/06/2015 7:37:38 PM PST by Hootowl
This is possibly a dumb suggestion, but why can't the Ukrainians use small drones flying at night to drop thermite grenades on Russian tanks? Would the thermite be able to burn through the armor and into the engine or fuel compartment?
1. Drones can carry missiles and bombs. There are no latch points for grenades.
2. Grenades have no steerable fins or guidance control, so they will land wherever their speed, trajectory, time to fall, and the wind and gusts place it. If you hung it by a wire for the drone to drop it, that’s the best you can do.
3. Grenades ignite a set number of seconds after the pin is pulled. There is no proximity sensor or contact trigger to set it off.
4. Assuming the grenade hits the tank, it will bounce at least once, so no guarantee of contact.
5. If the final resting place is in a specific area and it has not been burning too long it might or might not damage the tank. Over the engine, it might burn through. On the turret, much less likely. Anywhere else and the tank armor might get thinned a bit, but it will not burn through.
In short, the most reliable method to get a thermite grenade onto a tank to try and burn through and disable it is up close and personal.
Not recommended.
I believe the thermite grenades may bounce once.
What, the fuk are you talking about? You believe?
1) piloting a drone from a distance using the on board camera is much more difficult than it looks
2) dropping anything, but especially a thermite grenade requires the drone be almost on top of the tank
3) drones are LOUD and can be easily located esp on a quiet night.
4) many small drones do not have that great of a range 400 m and WELL inside the range of any soviet tank.
The Rooskies trained dogs to carry bombs under German tanks. That seems a little sketchy in a lot of ways, but they had some success. Germans were shooting dogs on sight.
Maybe Ukranians could train their Democrats to do the same thing?
You have been reading too many “Patriot” books.
Dunno. Infantrymen used thermite grenades to disable German artillery pieces in WWII. Seems a logical step.
My thought was that the Ukrainians need something inexpensive to counteract the Russian armor and it’s evident that our Fearless Leader is not inclined to provide them anything except rations.
Yep, Rangers on D-day disabling German cannon.
You don’t have to drop it, you just kamakazi the drone with its thermite package into the tank. Drones cost a lot less than tanks.
Artillery pieces are not the same as tanks, and the armor on modern-day battle tanks is much tougher than anything available in WWII.
Well partner, I sure hope we helped you with your questions.
It looks like we covered them, then flat ran out of steam.
“They defined the word pazerfaust as meaning “armor fist” but I am not sure they got it right.”
That’s correct, tank fist or armor fist. The weapon is a relatively lightweight man-portable recoilless gun. It was used to defeat tanks and other armored targets.
“My thought was that the Ukrainians need something inexpensive to counteract the Russian armor and it’s evident that our Fearless Leader is not inclined to provide them anything except rations”
The Ukrainians have/had PLENTY of cheap things capable of taking out tanks, from 50 years of Soviet production, that was stored in caches all over Ukraine. What they lack are soldiers with the will to stand and use them.
True. Savvy Russians commandeered the bed springs from as many beds as they could while moving west. A good layer of them on a tank would either keep the shaped charge from striking hard enough to go off, or have it go off far enough from the armor as to defeat the self forged penetrator.
Microsoft and Atomic games made some fantastic small unit games covering D-Day, Arnhem, The Eastern Front and the Battle of the Bulge (Close Combat series). Playing any of the latter three (East front later in war, and I don’t have the first) and you learn really fast that you are screwed taking armor into towns and villages with panzerfaust wielding defenders.
Unless I was really pressed for ammo, I usually would just level places and then mop up.
Arnhem (”Bridge to Far”) is ruthless, it is next to impossible to win that game playing the allies.
Forget it - this isn’t your Daddy’s tank - modern Russian tanks are equipped with area protection systems which would make short work of your drone. See here for the specs:
ARENA-E Active Protection System for AFV
http://defense-update.com/20040221_arena-e.html#.VPrkKmZMGbg
“The system is designed to protect the tank from attacks of anti-tank guided missiles launched from the ground and by attack helicopter and lightweight anti-tank grenades (such as RPG).”
There was another method also. My neighbor a Veteran of house to house fighting in WWII said he and his platoon had actually disabled tanks using it. It was close quarter fighting within the cities and the visibility of the tanks was limited. He and his men would fire their Garand’s at the muzzle of the oncoming tank. He swore they had actually set the round off inside the barrel or put enough rounds into it to create enough of a barrier of loose rounds that the round trying to pass down the barrel would come in contact and create enough over pressure to blow the breech and disable the main gun. While true or not I don’t know but the Garand is more than capable of the accuracy needed to hit a 90 mm circle at less than 100 yards and debris inside the barrel of a weapon can have devastating results.
I agree. Not sure what the answer is though.
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