The billions of dollars in military aid that the United States has sent to Ukraine include some of the most advanced and lethal weapons systems in the world. But Ukraine has also achieved great successes in the war by employing these weapons and equipment in unexpected ways and modifying some, according to military experts.
From the sinking of Russia’s flagship Moskva in the Black Sea in April to the attack on a Russian air base in Crimea this month, Ukrainian troops have used American and other weapons in ways few expected, experts and officials say. US Department of Defense.
By mounting missiles on trucks, for example, Ukrainian forces moved them more quickly to the firing range. By placing rocket systems on speedboats, they increased their naval warfare capability. And, to the astonishment of weapons experts, Ukraine continued to destroy Russian targets with Turkish-made Bayraktar attack drones and cheap plastic aircraft modified to launch grenades and other munitions.
“People are using the MacGyver metaphor,” said Frederick Hodges, former commander of the US Army in Europe, referring to the 1980s TV show in which the main character uses simple, improvised contraptions to get out of situations. complicated.
After six months of war, the death toll on both sides is high: although US officials estimate that up to 80,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, the Ukrainian military, with fewer weapons, said it was losing 100 to 200 soldiers a day. . Even so, the ingenuity of the Ukrainians stands in sharp contrast to the doctrinaire, plodding, and painful nature of the Russian advance.
In the attack on the Moskva, for example, the Ukrainians developed their own missile, called the Neptune, based on the design of an old Soviet anti-ship missile, but with substantially improved range and electronics. It appears they mounted the Neptune missiles on one or more trucks, according to a US official, and moved them into the ship’s range, which was about 120 kilometers from Odessa.
The Moskva attack was, in essence, Neptune’s proof of concept; the new Ukrainian weapon was used for the first time in a real war and destroyed Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea.
“With the Moskva, they created, like the MacGyver, a very effective anti-ship system that they put on the back of a truck so they could move it,” Hodges, who is now a senior consultant for Human Rights First, said in an interview.
Ukrainian troops did so well with the Bayraktar drone, in fact, that the company’s CEO, Haluk Bayraktar, praised its ability to “extract as much as possible from these systems” in a recent interview with a Ukrainian news program.
US military officials remain puzzled as to why Russia’s multi-layered air defense systems have not been more effective in stopping drones, which lack self-defense systems, are easily detected by radar and fly at just 130 km per hour. .
A senior Pentagon official said Ukrainian forces placed American-supplied HARM anti-radiation missiles on Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets — something no air force had ever done. The American HARM missile, designed to seek and destroy Russian air defense radar, is generally not compatible with the MiG-29 or the other fighters in the Ukrainian arsenal.
Ukraine was able to adapt the aiming sensors to allow pilots to fire the American missile from their Soviet-era aircraft. “Actually, they successfully integrated him,” the official said during an interview with the Pentagon, speaking on the condition of anonymity under Biden administration rules.
Officials say the missiles can hit Russian air defense systems from around 150 km away.
That expertise is now being demonstrated in Crimea. In recent weeks, Ukraine has carried out a series of attacks on the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
In the attack on the Russian air base, Ukrainian forces destroyed eight fighter jets. A few days later, underground Ukrainian fighters operating behind enemy lines hit several targets in occupied territory that Russia considered safe, including ammunition depots and supply lines.
Explosions then hit a military airport on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city and home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia claimed the booms from the attack were the sound of successful anti-aircraft fire.
“Ukrainians are able to tap into their knowledge of the area,” said Dara Massicot, senior policy researcher at Rand Corp.
This experience is rooted in the history of Ukraine, which was the center of the former Soviet Union’s defense industry. For decades, Ukraine was the place where the Soviet Union – and later Russia – developed engines for warships, tanks and even aircraft, such as the Antonov An-124, one of the largest cargo planes in the world, used by Russia to transport weapons to Ukraine.
US military commanders who have worked with Ukrainian troops say the country’s military is always ready to improvise.
The Crimean attacks underscore Ukraine’s increasingly aggressive military tactics, as the Kiev government has relied on local special forces and militias to strike beyond the front lines, disrupt Russian supply routes and offset Russia’s advantages in weapons. and equipment.
US officials say their country provided detailed information to help Ukrainian forces attack Russian targets during the war. But Ukraine carried out the first of the recent attacks in Crimea – a series of explosions at the Saki military airfield on Aug. 9 – without notifying the Americans and other Western allies in advance, officials said.
Indeed, a US official later briefed on the attacks said Ukrainian commandos and fighters used a range of weapons, explosives and improvised tactics in the attacks.
“It’s all homemade,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of operational details. “We received no advance notice.”
