Yahoo! News
What is an anti-tank weapon and how do they work?
Connor Parker – March 11, 2022
The war in Ukraine has been a been marked by a strong resistance which it is believes the Russians did not anticipate and has left Vladimir Putin frustrated and angry.
The war effort has seen civilians take up arms against Russian troops, while the country has also been supplied with a significant amount of weapons from the West.
One of the most important aspects of this has been the thousands of anti-tank weapons that have poured into the country, but what are they and have they made a difference?
Which anti-tank weapons are being used?
Numerous allies – including the UK, Germany, France, US and Denmark – have supplied Ukraine with anti-tank weapons since the start of the conflict.
Each missile costs around £130,000, but that is nowhere near as expensive as the tanks they are fired at.
Numerous different types of anti-tank weapons have been handed to Kyiv, including Javelins and Next Generation Light Antitank Weapons (NLAWs).
Generally, the Americans have been supplying Javelins, while the Europeans have been providing NLAWs.
They are significantly more advanced than the basic RPGs the Ukrainians were equipped with in 2014.
How do anti-tank weapons work?
The basic premise of a modern anti-tank weapon is a small guided missile held by a single-use launcher.
The launcher has an advanced targeting computer attached to it and targets specific weak spots on tanks.
The computer does 95% of the work for the soldier, meaning all they have to do is pull the trigger and then get into cover.
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The weak spot is usually the turret or the area between the turret and the main body of the tank.
The armour-piercing missile usually completely disables a tank with a single shot.
Javelin missiles fire straight up into the air before arcing back down to hit the top of the tank and have a much longer range than NLAWs (4.5km compare to 1km).
They weigh around 12kg, which is carriable for a single soldier, but once the missile has been fired, the huge launcher is then useless.
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NLAW’s are also designed to be able to be taught how to use weapon to learn to use, reportedly taking around an hour.
With the fact they can be operated by one or two soldiers they have significantly advanced ground combat, making tanks’ previous dominance much reduced.
Have they made a difference in Ukraine?
Although hard facts are difficult to confirm in such a fluid situation, it appears the supply of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine has caused significant damage to the Russian advance.
Numerous videos of the targeted missiles being shot at Russian armour have appeared on social media.
Even more pictures of destroyed tanks have circulated around the internet.
Russia has the largest number of tanks in the world, although many of these are fairly old Soviet models.
Ukraine claims to have destroyed 465 heavy vehicles (tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers) since the start of fighting.
Has Russia tried to counter this?
Although the Russians are losing lots of armour, videos in recent days appear to show them employing weapons to counter anti-tank missiles.
Several Russian tanks have been pictured with wire and steel “cope cages” attached to their turrets.
The purpose of these is to force the missile to explode just before impacting the actual turret itself, hopefully mitigating the damage.
The effectiveness of these cages is not yet known.