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The Russian military has destroyed an American-made M1A1 SA Abrams tank of Kiev forces using a Lancet loitering munition for the first time.
Video footage of the Lancet strike was posted to social media on March 31. The strike reportedly took place in the Avdeevka direction. The footage shows the tank, which was hidden under trees, receiving a direct hit from the loitering munition. The strike apparently set the shells stored in the rear of the turret on fire, effectively killing the tank.
The larger version of the Lancet, the Izdeliye-51, was used in the strike. This version has an endurance of 40 minutes and is armed with a warhead weighing three kilograms.
The Lancet, which was developed by Russia’s ZALA Aero Group, 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 latest defeated Abrams was the tenth to be destroyed or damaged so far, according to Russian sources. All previous losses were also in the Avdeevka direction. One of the tanks was hit by a Russian T-72B3 tank, while the others were targeted with anti-tank guided missiles, FPV suicide drones and artillery.
The United States supplied Ukraine with 31 Abrams tanks and an unknown number of M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV), which are built on the same chassis, over the past year. In addition to the Abrams losses, two ABVs have been destroyed so far, also in the Avdeevka direction.
Although embarrassing for both Ukraine and the U.S., the failure of the Abrams was not surprising. The tank was defeated by Soviet-era weapons in both Iraq and Yemen in the past.
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