Ukrainian commandos struck Russian radar "Ancient" managed projectile: what is known

During the raid in the Kursk region, outdated weapons were used - American howle shells of M712 Coperhead Caliber 155 mm with laser guidance. Their use during hostilities in Ukraine has not been reported before. A group of special forces used three shells that were released from the American towing howitzer M777 to hit the radar on the tower near the Russian villages Pravda and Martynivka, 8 km from Sudzhi. Two hits were reported.

The first about Copperhead ammunition was reported by the Russian Selegram-Channel. On November 1, a file was published, which was probably a translation of the Russian report on lessons that Ukrainian SCOs were given during combat clashes in the Kursk region. The Kyiv Post studied the document and found that it meets the content of the Ukrainian military doctrine and the standards of SCO reporting.

In the section of the report on how the SCO agents called artillery fire on the purposes of Russian positions, describes in detail how a group of eight people came up, and then brought a laser target indicator at a distance of 2. 25 km from the Russian radar. Then a coperhead was caused on the Ukrainian side of the border. Two shells worked as it was conceived, directly struck by the antennas of Radar. The third missed because his optical sensor was damaged before the shot, according to the report.

According to the videos and text of the document, it was possible to install a laser system that was used during the attack - Leonardo Type 163 laser of Australian production. They are used by Australian defense forces (ADF) and some NATO countries. Open sources report that four systems were acquired in 2021 for $ 1 million. The United States developed a high-precision cumulative-managed coperhead shell in the 1970s.

It was intended for use against the Soviet troops, but was first used during the 1991 Gulf of Persian. The ammunition contains electronics, which was considered advanced once, but is now largely outdated. Analytists estimate that one M712 Coperhead project cost $ 50-70 thousand, and in 1995 there were about 20,000 such ammunition in the United States. Pentagon removed Coperhead from weapons in the mid-1990s after export of small parties to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Taiwan.