New Delhi: Russia has introduced a new kind of anti-tank mine known as the “jumping mine” that targets armoured vehicles, a system that the US is also eyeing and has ordered for.
Social media posts with images, including those shared by Ukrainian forces of captured PTKM-1Rs, show that the Russian-made top-attack anti-vehicle landmine is being used in the war-torn country.
Initially spotted in Ukraine in late April, the advanced munition has been used there since last year.
According to the Russian state arms export agency Rosoboronexport, the PTKM-1R is a smart munition designed to damage or destroy tanks and armoured fighting vehicles. It is produced and used only by Russia.
The PTKM-1R is different from other conventional anti-tank mines used by Russia in the Ukraine conflict as it has the capability to attack the top of an armoured vehicle. This is so because the front and sides of a tank or an armoured personnel carrier generally have thicker armour than on the top, making the upper portion the most vulnerable part.
The PTKM-1R is a high-explosive, top-attack, shaped-charge, anti-vehicle landmine. Its transporter-launcher is designed to detect the passage of target vehicles using acoustic and seismic sensors that detect a target by the sound it makes and the ground vibrations it induces.
Capable of selecting what armoured vehicle to hit, it chooses only those equipment that meet the specified parameters of noise and ground vibration. Four acoustic sensors help PTKM-1R to locate an incoming target 360 degrees, which allows detection of a target arriving from any direction, and calculate its travel direction.
The mines are practically new, and Rosoboronexport did not officially introduce them until November 2021 at the ARMY-2021 exhibition in Moscow and then at EDEX 2021 in Cairo. They have a limited level of adoption by the Russian military.
The PTKM-1R is equipped with a self-destroying mechanism with a one- to ten-day programming range that allows it to destroy targets moving at a maximum speed of 50 km per hour.
The mine has an engagement range of 5 m to 50 m, and a detection range of 100 m. When a target is found, the PTKM-1R determines a flight path and tilts the launch unit by 30 degrees in the direction of the target to form a parabolic ballistic trajectory over it.
The US Army, meanwhile, has begun production of new anti-tank landmines that are launched from the air, according to a report by Breaking Defense.
In August last year, Janes reported the US Army awarded a five-year, low-rate initial production contract to Textron Systems for manufacturing its brand-new XM204 top-attack munition, a landmine intended to disable combat vehicles.
Textron Systems is putting the first production run for the US Army together. According to the company’s senior vice-president for weapon systems Henry Finneral, the first units for product verification testing are likely to be ready by the middle of 2023.
Furthermore, the intermediate XM204 weapon might reach the US forces and, perhaps, European partners in the future years, but not necessarily Ukraine, if manufacturing and development progress as planned.
“There are no foreign military sales orders yet but there is a lot of interest, and we continue to anticipate that that would be a part of where many of these systems would go,” Finneral told Breaking Defense in December last year.
The US Army is looking for a more lethal anti-tank mine system as part of a bigger effort to prepare for a future conflict that may feature armoured engagements with adversaries like Russia and China.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: China, Iran & Russia engaging in ‘espionage and interference’: New Zealand intelligence report