MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – JUNE 25, 2019: A ZALA Lancet-3 attack drone developed by Kalashnikov Concern on display at the Army 2019 International Military Technical Forum at Patriot Park. Marina Lystseva/TASS
Russia’s advanced Lancet system has scored its first kill against a German-made Leopard 2, proving that the main battle tank which was regarded by the mainstream media as a Wunderwaffe is poorly protected.
Video footage showing the successful loitering munition strike was released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on June 10. The strike reportedly took place two days earlier, during Kiev forces’ ill-fated attack near the village of Orekhov in the Zaporozhye region.
The tank that was destroyed by the Lancet was not an older version of the Leopard 2, but rather one of the latest ones, the A6.
The Leopard 2A6, which is armed with the powerful Rheinmetall 120 mm L/55 smoothbore gun, is supposed to be protected with an improved armor package. Despite this, a hit from the lighter version of the Lancet, the Izdeliye-52 which is armed with a warhead weighing one kilogram only, was enough to kill the tank.
The tank did receive the hit on the side, a weaker part of its armor. However, such attacks should be expected in modern warfare. The designer of the Leopard 2, Krauss-Maffei, clearly didn’t make enough efforts to address this threat.
On the other side, the operators of the Lancet were clearly well-informed on the weak points of the tank and planned the strike in a very competent manner.
The Lancet loitering munition was developed by the ZALA Aero Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern.
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 Leopard 2 killed by the Lancet was only one of several which were destroyed by the Russian military during the last battle of Orekhov. A number of American-made Bradley M2A2 ODS infantry fighting vehicles were also destroyed during the battle.
Ukraine’s allies promised to supply the country with around 100 Leopard 2 tanks in recent months, at least 21 of which are of the A6 version. Those upgraded tanks were promised by Germany and Portugal.
The success of the Lancet against the Leopard 2 was not surprising considering that the system has scored more than 300 documented hits since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine last year.
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