Ukrainian Soldiers have conducted combat drills with American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles near the front line area in eastern Ukraine.
The Javelin is a man-portable weapon that can defeat a broad spectrum of close combat threats providing fire-and-forget technology, which allows Soldiers the opportunity to engage a second target.
The big surprise of these exercises, though, is using as a target of a tank turret with slat armour, similar to the installed on modern Russian combat vehicles.
During the exercise, the target was successfully destroyed and the Ukrainian military released footage showing the burnt wreckage of a tank turret hit by Javelin.
It is worth noting that it was possible to hit the target only on the second attempt after lit a fire in the turret hull to simulate the working tank engine.
Russian military engineers recently began fitting its main battle tanks with slat armour over the turret specifically designed to protect against a top-down attack like the Javelin anti-tank missile or drone bomb.
I think for evidence of Russian armor adapting to counter Javelin ATGM, particularly this year, I would point to the space to mount a thermal emitter on an extended snorkel. pic.twitter.com/PRfxNhauBk
— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) November 23, 2021
The War Zone reported in November that Russian T-80 and T-72 tanks have apparently been sighted in occupied Crimea and near the Ukrainian border with a similar bizarre-looking ad hoc armor fit.
Some observers have suggested these top-mounted screens are a response to the threat posed by advanced anti-tank guided missiles, or ATGMs, like the Javelin, which attack from above, and which are now in Ukrainian hands. It was expected that the metal structures could potentially interfere with an ATGM’s detonation sequence.
