MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – JUNE 25, 2019: A ZALA Lancet-3 attack drone developed by Kalashnikov Concern on display at the Army 2019 International Military Technical Forum at Patriot Park. Marina Lystseva/TASS
Russian Lancet loitering munitions continue to hunt down the M777 towed 155 mm howitzers the United States supplied to Kiev forces after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
On January 14 and 15, videos documenting strikes with Lancet loitering munitions that targeted two M777 howitzers on Bakhmut and Kherson fronts surfaced online.
The M777 howitzer has a maximum rate of fire of seven rounds per minute with a range of up to 40 kilometers when firing M982 Excalibur precision-guided rounds. Kiev forces have received 152 howitzers of this type so far. The U.S. provided 142, while Canada provided four and Australia six. Many of these howitzers have been already damaged, destroyed or even captured by the Russian military.
The Lancet was developed by the ZALA Aero Group. 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 electro-optical system that allows them to detect, track and lock on static and moving targets.
The Russian military intensified the use of Lancet loitering munitions in the last few months, inflicting heavy losses on Kiev forces. The system was successfully used to destroy dozens of Ukraine’s newly-acquired Western-made howitzers in the special military operation zone.
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