DRAMATIC footage captured the moment Ukraine’s tiny Robot Wars-style suicide drone blew up a bridge to prevent Russian troops advancing.
The kamikaze land drone, dubbed the “Honey Badger”, wheeled its way into a small hole before exploding and tearing the bridge apart in a spectacular feat of new technology.
A view from the drone operator’s screen showing how the ‘Honey Badger’ is directed into a crack in the bridgetwitter.com/bayraktar_1love
TwitterThe moment the eastern Ukrainian bridge exploded after the ‘Ratel S’ detonated inside it[/caption]
A huge cloud of smoke fills the screen after the structure was torn apart – halting any Russian advance across ittwitter.com/bayraktar_1love
TwitterThe small, but impressive mobile land drone was unveiled in October and is being rolled out across the frontline[/caption]
The video, filmed in the blood-drenched region around Bakhmut in Ukraine‘s east, shows the moment the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) creeps towards a bridge, gets inside an existing crack and detonates.
A huge fiery explosion fills the screen as the bridge is destroyed by the small robot drone, named the “Ratel S”.
The bridge was positioned close to the village of Ivanivske, Donetsk region and the explosion will now complicate Russian logistics and supply lines to its advancing troops.
The Ratel S, which carries anti-tank mines and other explosive devices, is used as a mobile warhead to destroy enemy tanks, trenches or infrastructure.
It was unveiled last October and is quickly becoming the newest headache for Vladimir Putin in the ongoing war of the drones.
Kyiv has made a habit of using inexpensive homemade drones to humiliate the Russian tyrant by destroying multi-million pound tanks on the battlefield or warships in the Black Sea – and capturing each hit on camera.
Our Honey Badger can traverse any terrain that a jeep can.
Taras Ostapchuk, the drone’s developer
Images, shared by Ukrainian minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, show how the small, but fearsome, four-wheeled UGV carries its heavy payload – ready to wreak havoc on Russian weapons.
The mobile drone can travel into difficult spots in order to detonate while its operated remotely from a safe distance using a Playstation-like controller.
It can carry up to 77lb and has a maximum speed of 15mph, according to its Ukrainian developer, Brave1.
The leader of its development, tech whizz Taras Ostapchuk, told the Kyiv Post: “Our Honey Badger can traverse any terrain that a jeep can.”
The UGV can continuously run for 40-50 minutes at an average speed or two hours at a slower speed and can overcome obstacles up to 8-10 inches high.
It’s now in mass production and is being rolled out across the 600 mile-long front.
Its development follows Ukraine’s 120th Reconnaissance Battalion requests for a drone capable of delivering a large warhead to positions on the battlefield while also resisting Russian electromagnetic jamming.
Ukraine has remained relentless in its pursuit of new technologies that could be applied to the battlefield, cheaply and en masse.
The war-torn country is now a world leader in drone production, developing frighteningly effective marine drones, including the renowned “Sea Baby”, as well as killer kamikaze FPV drones.
It comes as incredible footage captured the moment as a suspected Ukrainian drone exploded as it hit one of Putin’s war factories yesterday.
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) erupted into a fireball after crashing into the plant in Russia where it is understood Iranian killer drones are assembled.
Panicked workers fled as a huge inferno engulfed the plant near Yelabuga, at least 660 miles from the closest Ukrainian territory.
And over the weekend, Ukraine destroyed one of Russia’s biggest mechanised charges since the start of the war – obliterating 12 tanks in a single day.
Dramatic footage captured a column of 48 Russian tanks and fighting vehicles being targeted by a barrage of drones, missiles and artillery on March 30 in eastern Ukraine.
For weeks, rumours had been bubbling of a renewed assault as Russia geared up its tanks, troops and equipment to storm Ukraine’s frontline north of Donetsk.
But Moscow’s 36 tanks and 12 armoured vehicles were no match for Ukraine’s defending forces led by the 25th Airborne Brigade.
Videos of the failed attack showed how the ill-fated convoy travelling along one road quickly became sitting ducks for highly-skilled Ukrainian drone operators, who were aided by a barrage of artillery and anti-tank missiles.
With ruthless precision, the footage shows how Kyiv’s forces took out tank after tank, forcing the column to break apart and be picked off.
Artillery helped to scatter the vehicles while kamikaze drones appeared to have been used to strike individual, undefended vehicles and mines and anti-tank missiles added to the carnage.
The new land drone can clear obstacles 8-10 inches high and is operated from a safe distance awaytwitter.com/bayraktar_1love
A huge fireball erupted as the Russian plant was hit on Tuesday
Footage shows panicked onlookers fleeing the factor said to be producing Iranian killer drones
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