Ukraine's Battle Buggies

The Ukrainian Army's use of Buggies and ATVs to fire anti-tank missiles in the Ukraine War.

a little video here on a unique and innovative weapon being used by Ukraine, which I’m sure you have all seen videos off. The missile-mounted battle buggies.
Now using all-terrain vehicles like this for combat operations is not very new, in fact, these types of vehicles have been used by various armies and special forces during the war in Afghanistan. The ATV is popular with Special Forces units because it has lightweight and small size allowing easy deployment and transport by military aircraft or helicopter. They are also fast and mobile, able to take soldiers long distances quicker than they’d travel by foot. For the governments and the penpushers—they are also pretty cheap to buy.
In the Ukraine War, the Ukrainian army is using a number of different ATV buggies. The Geon Strike 1000, the CFMoto Tracker, the Polaris Ranger and the VOLS Petliyra
Ukraine has innovatively modified these vehicles to carry anti-tank missile launchers. So, the Polaris Ranger has been seen mounted with the RK-3 Corsar and the Stugna-P … or Skif as it’s also known. The Tracker with the Skif, the Strike 1000 with the Skif and the Petliyura with the RK-3
So, let’s look at the missile systems used. The Skif is a Ukrainian-made anti-tank guided missile designed to destroy modern armored vehicles or tanks protected by heavy armor, including Explosive Reactive Armor.
The Skif weapon system consists of a tripod, missile container, PDU-215 remote control panel, guidance device, and thermal imager. The PDU-215 control panel is a briefcase-like laptop computer with a control panel, holding a small joystick and a flat-panel display, which is connected to the firing unit by a cable, allowing it to be used at distances up to 50 meters away.
The Skif missile can be fitted with two types of warhead including the RK-2S which is able to destroy main battle tanks such as the Russian T-90A with penetration of 800 mm behind ERA and the RK-2M-K warheads might be able to destroy heavy main battle tanks with a penetrating capacity of 1100 mm behind ERA. The Skif missile range also includes high explosive (HE) fragmentation RK-2OF and RK-2М-OF warheads to attack infantry positions and light armored vehicles.

The Corsar is another Ukrainian-built system. It uses a tripod mount and users laser-beam riding as its guidance system. It can carry two types of warhead=--the RK3K HEAT warhead with 550mm penetration behind ERA and RK-3OF high explosive fragmentation with 50mm penetration.

So, it doesn’t pack the punch that Stugna-P does. But the RK-3K warhead can still piece the front armor of tanks such as the T-72A.
So, why use buggies?
The Skif especially is a heavy weapon—weighing 214 lb with the full system plus missile weighing 229lb. So, mounting it on a buggy allows for greater mobility—allowing the firing team to lug a heavy weapon faster and greater distances without exhausting themselves.

The buggies are the perfect hit and run weapon. While they may lack the offroad capabilities of a tank, they can easily be extracted from mud or other difficulties. They are also very quiet—their engine can be further silenced by added makeshift mufflers to the exhaust tips.
Using the ATV with an anti-tank guided missile weapon system, the Ukrainian soldiers can quickly engage a target on the battlefield and then quickly move to another position without the possibility of being spotted by the enemy.
On the downside, they offer very little protection for the crew and don’t carry any countermeasures such as smoke bombs. If spotted—the crew will have to rely on the vehicles speed and mobility to escape. Artillery shells or mortar rounds will be especially dangerous to the crew operating one of these.