The gift of the United Kingdom with which Ukrainians destroy Russian tanks

As the struggle with Russia grows, Ukraine has recently strengthened its defense capacity. Ukrainian troops received advanced weapons from their main allies - with the United States and the United Kingdom at the helm - to deal with the Russian threat.

Among the new generation material that the Ukrainian Army holds, the Javelin and NLAW missiles, capable of destroying Russian tanks and armored vehicles, stand out.

On January 17, C-17 cargo planes of the British Royal Air Force arrived in Kiev. On that day, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace argued that Boris Johnson's government decided to “supply Ukraine with anti-armor light defensive weapon systems.”

A British diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss defensive aid with The New York Times, said that the United Kingdom sent more than 4,200 NLAWs to Ukraine. “We still consider it one of the best short-range defensive anti-tank weapons,” the diplomat said.

The United States, for its part, began sending its own Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in 2018. In December of last year, it approved an additional $200 million weapons package, including more such shells. In addition, this month allowed Estonia to send more Ukrainian troops.

These missiles are provided with their respective launchers. In 2018 Washington sent 210 shells along with 37 launchers. A year later, another batch of 150 missiles and 10 launchers were added. On January 21, the US embassy in Kiev confirmed the arrival of a new shipment.

The Javelin weapon system is manufactured by the American companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

These devices have a launch unit (CLU) and a double-headed projectile. The missile is placed in the CLU, which weighs only 6.4 kilograms, and the shooter searches for the target using the sight (night or day).

The missile, weighing 15.9 kilograms, has two charges. The first is designed to detonate all types of armor, and the second to pierce the target. This feature places it in a very select category.

Its propulsion system, based on solid fuel, generates little smoke and allows the launch to be smooth, even in tight places and areas. The effective range of this missile, which also has an effective infrared cadmium/mercury guidance, is up to four kilometres.

The Javelin belongs to the missiles known as “fire and forget”: the gunner can locate a tank, set the target, fire and then flee to safety, without needing to follow its trajectory. In addition, it can be ready to fire in less than 30 seconds, and be recharged in as little as 20.

It also has two modes of use: direct attack or overhead. The former is mainly used from covered positions, such as bunkers and buildings. In this way, the missile takes the shortest route until it reaches the target, being able to reach 50 meters high.

The attack from above, on the other hand, destroys the main targets more quickly: the tanks. The most vulnerable areas of these military vehicles are located at the top and bottom. What the projectile does, instead of taking the fastest track, is to climb to a certain height and then fall on the roof of the tank.

Thanks to its combat warhead, which has a penetration of more than 600 mm, this type of missile is developed to deal with the most modern tanks, such as Russian ones.

Missiles, however, can also be deceived, since the most modern dams can release a concealment smoke, which aims to confuse the thermal sensors of the projectile. In fact, last November Ukrainian forces spotted some Russian tanks with “slat” armor on top. Others appeared to have heat-emitting lures to deflect the warheads.

The other anti-tank missile that Ukrainian troops have is the NLAW, developed by the Swedish company SAAB, in cooperation with the British Ministry of Defense.

Despite having similar capabilities to those of the FMG-148 Javelin, it is less powerful. Among its main virtues, it can destroy Russian tanks at short distances: its combat range is between 20 and 800 meters. It is even the only system capable of reaching a tank or any armored unit from a distance of 20 meters.

The minimum time from target detection to confrontation is approximately 5 seconds.

Armed with a powerful high-explosive warhead (with a penetration of 150 mm), it flies at a height of almost a meter above the tank with the projectile head pointing downwards.

These properties make NLAW missiles ideal for ambushes in wooded terrain and fortifications.

However, the Russian Army also resists these missiles through the Active Protection System (APS), which uses radar to detect the projectiles and then explosively fires others to stop them.

According to the Economist, Ben Barry, a former British Army officer working at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, argues that only a small proportion of Russian tanks currently have such defenses. But on the other hand, these armored vehicles would probably be at the forefront of an attack, which would pose a problem not only for Ukrainians, but also for NATO.

Since Ukrainians cannot fight Russian armored vehicles with their own tanks, they must use different tactics, said the diplomat who spoke to The New York Times, adding that Ukrainians have demonstrated the will and extraordinary courage to approach tanks and destroy them in these missile attacks.

“You need to know how to fight and you need the means, but it's the will, what is in the hearts of Ukrainians to fight?” , said the diplomat. “They are fighting an existential threat and they are not giving up. So we have given them, at their request as a sovereign nation, the tools to go and do this.”

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