Russian Army Hit Over 40 Ukrainian Leopard Tanks With Lancet Drones

The Russian military has so far destroyed at least 47 German-made Leopard main battle tank of Kiev forces using Lancet loitering munitions in the special military operation zone, the ZALA Aero Group, which produces the unmanned system, said on March 25, citing information from Lostarmour.info, a website that documents military losses.

In a post to its official channel on Telegram, the company, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern, said that some of the targeted tanks were of the older Leopard 1 type, while the rest were of the more advanced Leopard 2A4 and A5 versions.

It’s worth noting Lostarmour.info also documented strikes on Strv 122 main battle tanks, a Swedish version of the Leopard 2A5.

Starting from 2023, Kiev forces have received some 60 Leopard 2 tanks, and over 100 others older Leopard 1 tanks from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Spain and other backers.

Video footage shared by ZALA along with the post showed multiple Leopard being badly damaged or completely destroyed by Lancets.

ZALA produces two versions of the Lancet, the Izdeliye-52 with an endurance of 30 minutes and a one-kilogram warhead and the larger Izdeliye-51 that has an endurance of 40 minutes and is armed with a warhead weighing around three kilograms.

The loitering munition flies towards the designated area with a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system. After arriving in the area, the operator utilizes an onboard electro-optical system via a two-way data-link to detect, track and lock on the target. A laser-ranging system then controls the detonation of the warhead.

The footage shared by Zala showed the loitering munition hitting the weakest points in the rear of the Leopard tanks, which are the ammunition storage section in the back of the turret and the engine section in the blacked of the chassis. This shows both the high accuracy of the loitering munition and the high experience of its operations.

The small radar cross-section and minimal infrared signature of the electric-powered loitering munition makes it very difficult to detect and intercept. Ukrainian attempts to stop Lancet loitering munitions with air defense fire, electronic warfare or countermeasures have been so far largely unsuccessful.

Source @South Front