One Shot, One Kill: Ukrainian Gunners Fire Laser-Guided Shells At Russian Vehicles

4.5.22
It’s not hard to find videos depicting direct hits by Ukrainian artillery on Russian vehicles in Ukraine. The skill and bravery of Ukrainian gunners is obvious. But those dramatic videos also hint at Ukraine’s integration and deployment of two key technologies—laser-guided artillery shells and laser-equipped drones. The drones spot Russian vehicles then sparkle them with a laser tuned to a specific wavelength—say, 830 nanometers, which produces a red beam that’s barely visible to the naked eye but is plainly visible to the seeker heads on guided shells with steerable fins. The Ukrainian army possesses at least one type of laser-guided shell, the 152-millimeter-diameter Kvitnyk, which is compatible with the army’s 2S3 self-propelled howitzers and D-20 towed guns. A Ukrainian firm also developed a laser-guided 122-millimeter shell called Karasuk that works with the army’s D-30 towed guns and 2S1 tracked howitzers. Any drone or spotter on the ground with a laser-designator can sparkle a target. It’s unclear which of Ukraine’s drones—the army flies both custom-made military models as well as off-the-shelf civilian types—routinely carry laser-designators. The army’s TB-2s for sure have designators.

The Ukrainians still were using drones to guide Kvitnyks are recently as Friday. A video that circulated on social media depicts 152-millimeter artillery scoring direct hits on several Russian vehicles, one after another in quick succession. The red laser actually is visible at the 38-second mark. It’s worth noting that the video from that strike doesn’t include the usual overlays that are present in TB-2 videos, hinting that whichever drone the Ukrainians used for designation, it wasn’t a TB-2. The drone apparently is stationary, perhaps implying it’s a commercial-style quadcopter. If that’s the case, then maybe the Ukrainians are fitting gimbals and lasers to their off-the-shelf drones. In that case, Kyiv’s precision artillery-drone complex could be pretty extensive, perhaps involved hundreds of drones and guns. It’s hard to say how many precision shells the Ukrainians have in their arsenal.

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Rogue Valley said:

One Shot, One Kill: Ukrainian Gunners Fire Laser-Guided Shells At Russian Vehicles

I believe the Israelis originally pioneered the tactic of "lighting up" a target with a laser designator and then using an armed drone or attack jet to destroy the target by homing in on the laser pulse.

Typically, military laser designators do not shine in a continuous pulse, but rather in a series of coded pulses of laser light. These signals bounce off the target and into the sky where they are detected by the seeker on the laser-guided munition.

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Felis Leo said:

An amazing display of destruction. This is starting to look very similar to the Israel War of Independence of 1948. Everyone expected the Israeli military and people to be annihilated by the (initially) numerically superior Arab League, who instead went down in humiliating defeat. I hope the Ukrainians slag or capture every piece of Russian armor on their soil.

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Rogue Valley said:

One Shot, One Kill: Ukrainian Gunners Fire Laser-Guided Shells At Russian Vehicles

I believe the Israelis originally pioneered the tactic of "lighting up" a target with a laser designator and then using an armed drone or attack jet to destroy the target by homing in on the laser pulse.

Typically, military laser designators do not shine in a continuous pulse, but rather in a series of coded pulses of laser light. These signals bounce off the target and into the sky where they are detected by the seeker on the laser-guided munition.

Click to expand...