Mines, Drones, and Robots: The Tactical Shift in Ukraine's Battlefield
In some areas, the war in Ukraine is a positional battle, where mines, aviation, and artillery take a leading role. The Russians have noticed the Ukrainians' employment of remotely operated robots or drones. We delve into why these seemingly unassuming devices pose a significant challenge.
Mining an area is one of the most straightforward and cost-effective strategies for restricting the opponent's movement. The ideal solution is to circumvent a minefield, but if that's not feasible, mounting an attack becomes exceedingly difficult. The adversary often bombards minefields with artillery and uses ambushes, including anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) positions.
The only viable strategy is to advance in formations behind specialised demining vehicles, which consequently become prime targets. Both the Russians, notably during the famed assault near Vuhledar in 2022, where they incurred significant losses, and in the initial battle phases near Avdiivka, and the Ukrainians during their unsuccessful summer offensive in Zaporizhzhia in 2023, faced this dilemma.
Mining robots in Ukraine – unassuming yet a formidable threat
Minefields are highly effective, but deploying them on the frontline virtually under the enemy’s nose poses a great challenge. Up until recently, the sole method was through special rocket projectile variants for multi-barrel rocket launchers such as BM-30 Smerch, BM-27 Uragan, BM-21 Grad, or M270 MLRS or through entire projectile mining systems like ISDM Zemledeliye.
Several types of robots and even drones adapted for surreptitiously mining the terrain have emerged on the Ukrainian side. Some are designed to place single or multiple conventional TM62 mines, while others are equipped to drop PTM-3-type mines.
It's now evident that the Russians have duplicated this concept, producing their own robots capable of laying a minefield up to about 30 metres away. These robots create an area approximately 8 to 10 metres wide and 18 to 20 metres long, with mines spaced about 2 metres apart.
Russian robots are equipped with nine PKM-1 launchers, which contain a powder charge and either anti-personnel or anti-tank mines. The detonation is triggered remotely via a cable roughly 50 metres long.
The KSF-1 container carries a payload of 71 PFM-1 mines, characterised by their butterfly design with 75g of liquid explosive material encased in soft plastic. Pressure on the casing causes an explosion capable of inflicting severe injuries to a limb.
The KSO-1 container, on the other hand, encases a single anti-tank mine PTM-3, packed with approximately 1.8 kilograms of explosive material, potent enough to damage, for instance, the tracks of an infantry fighting vehicle.
