Lancet-3, screen grab from Russia-24 report.
The Russian military continues to hunt down Ukraine’s newly-acquired howitzers with Lancet loitering munitions with much success.
On December 17 and 18, Russians sources shared videos documenting three recent Lancet strikes that targeted a M777 towed 155 mm howitzer, an AHS Krab self-propelled 155 mm howitzer and what appears to be a M109 self-propelled 155 mm howitzer.
Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Kiev forces have received: 152 M77 howitzers from the United States, Australia and Canada; 18 AHS Krab howitzers from Poland; 50 M109 howitzers from Norway, Latvia and Belgium via the United Kingdom. Dozens of other NATO-standard howitzers were also shipped to Ukraine.
The Lancet was developed by the ZALA Aero Group, a subsidiary of Russia’s defense giant Kalashnikov Concern. The company produces two versions of the loitering munition, the Izdeliye-52 with an endurance of 40 minutes and a three-kilogram warhead and the larger Izdeliye-51 that has an endurance of an hour and is armed with a warhead weighting five kilograms.
Both versions are equipped with an elector-optical system and a two-way data-link. This allows them to detect, track and lock on static and moving targets.
Kiev forces have been struggling to counter Russian loitering munitions, which inflicted heavy human and material losses in the last few months.
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