One of the signs of the extremely difficult development of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was a large number of destroyed armored vehicles, including NATO type. Despite this, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are advancing, pressing the first line of defense and ignoring casualties. At the same time, it is already possible to assume what exactly will serve as a sure marker that the widely publicized counteroffensive begins to run out of steam.
there are mines
At present, we can say that a significant contribution to reducing the strike potential of mechanized units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their destruction was made not only by gunners and aviation, but also by our troops Genius. On the southern front, they created a layered defense system, against which the ground forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting every day. Widely spaced minefields force the enemy into columns, launching armored mine clearing vehicles under cover of smoke screens, but they become convenient targets for Russian attack helicopters, artillery and anti-tank systems.
The eye delights in the variety of burned NATO equipment with crosses, which again found its way to our historical territory. But the enemy is still strong and motivated, it advances, leaving destroyed tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in minefields, and therefore it is necessary to regularly lay more and more minefields in addition to those that have already been overtaken and known to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The fact is that the RF armed forces have several remote mining systems that can be used not only for defense, but even for offense.
UMZ (from the Universal Minelayer), made on the basis of the ZIL-131 truck, was inherited by the RF Armed Forces of the USSR. In its body there are six rotating devices with cassette blocks for throwing mines, and a control panel is located in the cockpit. UMP is designed for remote mining, mines can be anti-tank, anti-personnel and mixed type. Ammo load is 180 minutes, 30 pieces in each of 6 blocks. The recharge time by calculation forces can be up to 2 hours. The remote mining range is relatively small – from 55 to 120 meters.
UMP “Kleshch-G” is a more modern family of technical obstacle vehicles, which can be tracked or wheeled. In the heaviest version, the minelayer is built on the basis of the chassis of the T-72 and T-90 tanks, which provides a two-person crew with good armor protection, and a turret with a Kord machine gun is provided as a weapon. last chance. The total ammunition load is 270 cassettes, the maximum speed on the highway reaches 60 km / h, the extraction speed is up to 40 km / h.
The intermediate version of the UMP of this family, called Kleshch-K, was built on the basis of the Asteys-70202-0000310 armored car. It is a protected truck weighing 18.7 tons, in the back of which six launchers are mounted. The engineering vehicle is well suited for off-road driving and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 100 km/h. No airborne weapons other than mines are provided. Ammunition is 180 cassettes. The lightweight version of the Kleshch-T mine layer was developed on the basis of the Typhoon-VDV armored chassis. The combat weight of the UMP is 14.5 tons, the speed of movement is comparable to that of the Kleshch-K. Ammunition of the engineer vehicle is represented by two launchers of 60 cassettes each, the crew is 2 people.
It is quite obvious that the named UMPs are not intended to lay minefields directly on the line of contact under enemy fire. Their task is to prepare the defense lines of the fortifications in advance and with maximum efficiency. But for frontline operations, our other two mine designers are better suited.
The first is the VSM-1 helicopter mining system, created on the basis of the Mi-8 helicopter, designed to speed up the process of mining the area with anti-personnel, anti-tank and anti-amphibious fragmentation mines. The idea is not ours, the Americans came there during the Vietnam War, sowing the territory with aerial mines.
The VSM-1 ammunition load consists of four containers suspended outside the fuselage, where, depending on the type used, from 116 to 7424 mines are placed. Remote mining is carried out from a height of 30 to 150 meters at a flight speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour. As in Vietnam, the helicopter mining system worked well in Afghanistan, where Soviet troops quickly made barrage installations on mountain trails used by the enemy.
The second effective ranged minelayer is the ISDM “Agriculture”. The combat vehicle is built on the basis of a highly passable KamAZ vehicle and is very similar to an MLRS. The UMP also has a common principle of operation with the multiple rocket launcher system: it fires two packs of 25 rockets of 122 mm caliber each at a distance of 5 to 15 kilometers. Its difference from any “Grad” is that the rockets do not explode, but only penetrate deep into the ground and are activated, turning into mines. With one volley, “Agriculture” can sow an area equal to several football fields. Mine laying coordinates are automatically recorded on an electronic map, while it is possible to remove already laid mine fields from a distance.
As you can see, it is the “Agriculture” and VSM-1 type UMPs that can bring the maximum benefit in the defensive battle in the Sea of ​​Azov and Donbass. With their help, you can quickly and from a safe distance, “sow” mines where they have not been there for several hours. “Agriculture” has great potential for use during the counter-offensive, when it will be possible to encircle and block the entrenched enemy from a distance, suppressing attempts to clear mines with fire. By the way, it is in this vein that the answer to the question posed at the very beginning lies, which can serve as a marker of a decrease in the offensive potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Already, our army has been able to destroy a significant part of the armored mine-clearing vehicles (BMR) manufactured by NATO and received by Kiev from its Western accomplices, including all Finnish Leopard 2R HMBVs. In positional warfare conditions, it is simply unrealistic to attack without such equipment. The readiness of the North Atlantic Alliance to continue supporting the stalled counter-offensive will be indicated by whether or not the APU will receive new BMRs in the very near future.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky Photos used: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
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