Russian Troops Are Using Naval Depth Charges on Tanks to Fill Artillery Gap

Russian troops looking for more fire support are mounting anti-submarine depth charge launchers on tanks, Kremlin news platforms reported recently.

Artificers in the SeverV brigade, first fielded a Soviet-era RBU-6000 depth charge launcher in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a detailed report by the Moscow-controlled information agency RF aired on n Jan. 28 said.

A copy of the World War II-era Hedgehog weapon used by the British navy to combat U-boats, the 1960s-era RBU-6000 fires up to a dozen rockets tipped with 23 kg warheads into the water thought by users to contain a submarine.

Images from the Russian official information Sputnik channel showed an RBU-6000 launcher mounted on the chassis of a mid Cold War era Ural truck. Volunteers convert the anti-submarine munitions for land use by changing out explosives and replacing original detonators designed to trigger underwater, the report said.

Other Russian mil-blogger platforms showed the system installed on the chassis of a late Cold War T-80 tank, and under testing by a Russian Naval Infantry unit.

The RT story showed a masked soldier telling interviewers the jury-rigged naval system is highly effective against ground targets. Subsequent images showed rockets fired during a night launch hitting a field. In the Sputnik report a masked soldier said the conversion had created an effective battlefield weapon that will bring Russia victory.

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According to independent watch groups like the Netherlands’ Oryx, the Russian military during its now 23-month-long invasion of Ukraine has lost more than 1,000 artillery systems of all types, and at least 500 rocket artillery systems.

As losses have mounted the Kremlin military has moved to fill equipment gaps with combat equipment sometimes 60 and 70 years old, including T-55 and T-62 tanks.

A new problem for Russian troops is dense swarms of newly fielded Ukrainian attack drones, the soldier said.