File image.
The Russian military has destroyed an American-made M1A1 SA Abrams main battle tank of Kiev forces in the Donetsk direction using a Lancet loitering munition.
The tank was targeted close to the Novoselovka Pervaya, which is located to the northwest of the city of Avdeevka. Video footage of the Lancet strike surfaced online on July 26. The footage shows the loitering munition impacting the tank from the top. After the hit, thick white smoke erupts which indicates that the ammunition stored in the rear of the tank’s turret caught fire.
This was the second Abrams to be hit by a Lancet. The loitering munition was developed by the ZALA Aero Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern.
The company produces two versions of the Lancet, the Izdeliye-52 with an endurance of 30 minutes and a one-kilogram warhead and the larger Izdeliye-51 that has an endurance of 40 minutes and is armed with a warhead weighing three kilograms.
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.
Ukraine received 31 Abrams from the United States over the past year. Russian media sources claim that more than a third of the tanks have already been destroyed or damaged. All the losses were near Avdeevka.
The total cost of the Abrams can be over $10 million per a single tank when including training and sustainment. Meanwhile, a single Lancet loitering munition costs just around $20,000.
Ukraine withdrew all Abrams tanks from the front earlier this year as the result of the excessive use of drones by the Russian military, which made it too difficult for the tanks to operate without detection or coming under attack, according to The Associated Press. However, the rapid advance of the Russian military near Avdeevka forced Kiev forces to redeploy the tanks.
A recent report by CNN acknowledged that the tank performed poorly in Ukraine and revealed that Kiev forces have been struggling just to keep their remaining Abrams operational.
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