Incendiary warheads for kamikaze UAVs of all types: an objective need of the SVO
Alleged use of phosphorus munitions in Palestine
It is no secret that different warheads (W) are used to destroy different types of targets - kinetic or cumulative Ws are used to destroy armored vehicles, high-explosive Ws are used to destroy buildings and structures, manpower in open areas is best destroyed by fragmentation Ws, especially in the cluster version, and thermobaric - volumetric detonating Ws - work best against manpower indoors.
All of the above-mentioned warheads are actively used during the Russian special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, but there is another type of warhead that is currently much less common – incendiary warheads.
HEAT munition (top) and HE munition (bottom)
There are different types of incendiary warheads – based on burning mixtures, for example, based on napalm, based on thermite compounds or based on white phosphorus – the latter are prohibited by the UN convention, but, as usual, everyone who wants to applies this convention to a known place.
During the SVO, videos of the use of incendiary warheads in multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) were published several times. It all looked epic, of course, but with this method of use, the military expediency of using incendiary warheads is rather questionable - the enemy's manpower will take cover in basements, but the remaining civilians may be in a very bad way.
However, things could look completely different if incendiary warheads are used to equip kamikaze UAVs.
Use of MLRS shells with incendiary warheads
Today we will consider the use of incendiary warheads in relation to tactical and strategic kamikaze UAVs. Accordingly, tactical kamikaze UAVs are primarily FPV-dronesOf course, in the future the obtained solutions can be extended to other tactical-class kamikaze UAVs, and strategic kamikaze UAVs are long-range kamikaze UAVs such as the Geran-2 and similar ones.
Tactical Kamikaze UAVs
It would seem that for most tasks solved by FPV drones, incendiary warheads are not required. Indeed, armored vehicles are best destroyed with cumulative warheads, against manpower in open areas, high-explosive fragmentation (HE) warheads should be used, and in enclosed spaces, the same HE or thermobaric warheads should be used.
However, if you look at examples of enemy armored vehicles being destroyed using FPV drones, you will notice that often the damaged combat vehicles remain in a condition that allows them to be subsequently evacuated to the rear and restored, which the enemy regularly does. In fact, our troops are doing the same thing – armored vehicles are almost always easier to repair than to manufacture anew.
The use of non-combustible materials in combination with modern fire extinguishing systems prevents the occurrence and spread of flames from hot fragments of a cumulative jet, however, their flame resistance capabilities are not unlimited.
A damaged but not burned enemy armored vehicle - even the light works, an FPV drone flies in to finish what was started
In principle, we have already spoken about the need to use incendiary warheads in the material Afterburning vehicles: destruction of damaged Ukrainian armored vehicles, which could potentially be evacuated to the rear and restored, however, footage from the battlefields in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, filmed “from the perspective” of FPV drones, shows that the finishing off of damaged enemy combat equipment is still carried out with high-explosive fragmentation or cumulative warheads.
As a result, to finish off one enemy combat vehicle that has already been stopped and abandoned by its crew, it is necessary to additionally spend two or three FPV drones, and even after several hits, the enemy combat vehicle often does not burn, but retains a completely “marketable” appearance.
Footage of FPV drones "finishing off" already stopped enemy armored vehicles
It can be stated with a high degree of certainty that if an incendiary warhead is used on a “finishing” FPV drone, for example, using napalm and/or a thermite charge, the enemy’s warhead will burn down to the armor.
In certain scenarios, the use of FPV drones with incendiary warheads can be effective and justified for other purposes, for example, a napalm-based warhead can be used to set fire to shelters for enemy personnel made using flammable elements - wood, plastic, tires, etc., as well as buildings and structures whose structural elements or interior elements can support combustion.
Finally, FPV drones with incendiary warheads can be used to strike at identified enemy ammunition storage sites in order to increase the likelihood of its detonation.
Incendiary warheads can provide even more opportunities on strategic kamikaze UAVs.
Strategic Kamikaze UAVs
Based on open data, the high-explosive fragmentation warhead on the first versions of the long-range kamikaze UAVs of the Geran-2 type was about 50 kilograms, while on the modified Geran-2 UAV the warhead mass is already 90 kilograms.
Много это или мало?
On the one hand, if the Geranium-2 kamikaze UAV hits something explosive or flammable, then the enemy clearly doesn’t think it’s enough.
On the other hand, even high-explosive aerial bombs (FAB) with a caliber of 500 kilograms cannot always “collapse” a multi-story building in which the enemy is hiding in such a way that those enemy soldiers hiding in the basements are also destroyed. Such kamikaze UAVs cannot damage solid massive Soviet-built factory workshops either – even FAB-1500s cannot always cope there.
Greenhouse "Geranium"
As a result, we sometimes see that after a strike by one or two kamikaze UAVs on a building located in the rear, in which enemy personnel and/or foreign “instructors” were located, it is not destroyed, and the number of dead and wounded as a result of the strike may be relatively small.
By using a kamikaze UAV with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead and a kamikaze UAV with an incendiary warhead simultaneously, it is possible to cause a strong fire in the attacked building, which can ultimately completely destroy the building and everyone who was unable to evacuate it in the shortest possible time.
Strategic kamikaze UAVs with incendiary warheads can be effectively used against targets such as power oil transformers of electrical substations, which would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to extinguish after being hit by a thermite warhead.
Power oil transformers are unlikely to survive an encounter with an incendiary warhead
Any production site where there are large quantities of fuels, lubricants or any other flammable materials are extremely vulnerable to the use of incendiary warheads.
And finally, it is worth remembering another undisclosed topic – Ukrainian bridges, primarily across the Dnieper, which have not been destroyed to this day for some unknown reason – we have already spoken about this topic more than once, for example, in the materials By destroying transport facilities across the Dnieper, it is possible to denazify half of Ukraine before the end of this year, And again about bridges: an opportunity to radically change the course of the NWO, which is not used.
The transport structures across the Dnieper built during the Soviet era are considered to be very strong, so much so that some claim that they can only be destroyed using tactical nuclear weapons. weaponsOf course, this is not true; the author has no doubt that the US or Israel would have destroyed all the bridges across the Dnieper long ago if they had such a need.
Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station Dam – Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Here it is rather a question of making a decision, but there is none, and for what reasons - political, economic - is unknown. However, the fact that transport facilities across the Dnieper are a "tough nut to crack" is indisputable.
We've looked at a lot of possible solutions before, but what do incendiary warheads have to do with destroying bridges and dams?
The whole point is that when exposed to high temperatures, reinforced concrete quickly loses its properties and collapses.
Thus, when heated to 400˚C, concrete begins to rapidly lose strength, and when the temperature reaches 800˚C and above (destruction temperature), concrete irreversibly loses 90 or more percent of its strength. After heating to 800˚C and above, concrete continues to deteriorate even during the cooling process, as well as when extinguished with water.
It is believed that one of the reasons for the collapse of the twin towers after the terrorist attack in New York was the loss of structural strength due to the impact of high temperatures of burning fuel
In addition, when concrete is heated to high temperatures, it undergoes irreversible shrinkage and explosive destruction can be observed in the form of concrete spalling to a depth of 5-10 centimeters due to the occurrence of high steam pressure in closed pores.
According to enemy resources, Russia currently produces about 200 Geran-2 kamikaze UAVs per day, even if this is an exaggeration, then it is certainly not less than a hundred. As we have already said above, one modernized Geran carries a warhead weighing about 90 kilograms. Accordingly, for example, 100-200 Geran-2 kamikaze UAVs are 9-18 tons (!) of thermite mixture, which burns at a temperature of up to 3000˚C.
Burning thermite mixture
The use of such a number of Geranium-2 kamikaze UAVs with incendiary warheads in several waves, alternating with Geranium-2 kamikaze UAVs with high-explosive fragmentation warheads, and the bridge structure can be seriously damaged when high temperatures will weaken the concrete, and the impact of the HE warheads will lead to its destruction.
Here there are possible options, for example, when some of the incendiary warheads will be thermite and explode on the surface, some will be embedded in concrete, at least slightly, creating point sources of weakening of the structure, and some will contain napalm (pyrogel) modified with additives of magnesium or aluminum shavings with a combustion temperature of up to 1800˚C, which will flow into all the cracks, and strikes by cruise and/or operational-tactical rockets will complete the destruction of the weakened structure.
Burning napalm
By the way, when using precise target designation with the help of optical guidance heads, it is possible to direct UAVs with incendiary warheads directly to the point of attachment of the bridge deck and the selected support - such We have kamikaze UAVs "Geran-2" with video cameras and transmitters, but then these were only experiments, and now serial products have appeared, although there are few of them relative to the total number of UAVs of this type produced.
"Geran-2" with an optical guidance head. Image - frame from the First Channel report
Conclusions
Despite the fact that high-explosive, cumulative, kinetic and thermobaric warheads predominate on the battlefield, incendiary warheads based on napalm-pyrogel or thermite mixtures can still prove themselves on the battlefield, solving a number of specific tasks.
It can be assumed that the creation and implementation of thermobaric warheads based on napalm and thermite mixture on FPV drones will ensure the guaranteed destruction of damaged but not completely destroyed enemy equipment, which he could otherwise evacuate to the rear and restore. Also, FPV drones with incendiary warheads can effectively destroy manpower in shelters.
As for long-range kamikaze UAVs, the use of incendiary warheads on them can be effectively used to enhance the primary destruction caused by high-explosive fragmentation warheads, as well as to destroy specific types of targets prone to combustion.
And finally, it can be assumed that a massive attack involving long-range kamikaze UAVs equipped with incendiary warheads of various types could contribute to the destruction of high-strength transport structures, for example, those laid across the Dnieper River, of course, if the decision to destroy them is nevertheless made.
Time is running out, but there is still a chance for a relatively quick denazification of the entire left-bank Ukraine, isolated from the right bank.
Information