Ukraine's Rocket Drones Aim To Blow Up Entire Russian Fuel Trains
Fire Point FP-1/2s can fire S-5 rockets before slamming into their targets
This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.
Ukrainian munitions firm Fire Point has armed its FP-1 and FP-2 one-way attack drones with unguided rockets. Chief engineer Denis Shtilerman’s dream target is a Russian supply train hauling tanker cars full of fuel bound for Russian regiments.
With eight rockets plus its own built-in warhead, an FP-1 or FP-2 could blast the entire train, not just one car. “That is exactly where it will be effective,” Shtilerman told Ukrainian news outlet NV. “When a train with a bunch of tanks is caught, it will justify itself the first time.”
The upgrade arrives as Ukraine’s counterlogistics campaign intensifies. Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian supply lines doubled between February and March, and were on track to double again between March and April, the most recent month for which good statistics are available.
“Strikes against storage facilities, particularly ammunition depots, as well as fuel infrastructure and rail networks, form over a quarter of total activity,” Ukrainian analysis group Tochnyi noted. “The intensity of attacks on munitions storage aligns with observed reductions in Russian artillery usage, while fuel-related targeting suggests a parallel effort to constrain mechanized operations by disrupting supply chains behind the front and most importantly politically on the home front.”
Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.
Great idea. Ever since that drone swarm took out a fuel train last year, it's been frustrating to then see only one or two drones attack fuel trains with at least ten wagons. I hope it works.