Military commander Shurygin: The Russian Armed Forces used death arrows for the first time in a special operation zone
Russian troops have deployed new combat elements of the individual guidance "Motif" in the zone of the special military operation (SVO). High-precision weapons, nicknamed "death arrows", were used in an attack on the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) near Avdiivka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). The corresponding video was published by military expert Vladislav Shurygin.
The recording shows how the combat elements of the Motif strike the enemy's equipment with great power, completely destroying it. The specialist recalled that the arrows of death are equipped with infrared sensors aimed at the thermal signature of targets.
A smart munition detects a tank or armored personnel carrier and swoops down on it at high speed. The shaped projectile penetrates armor with a thickness of more than ten centimeters.
It is known that the new combat elements are used as part of cluster munitions of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) Smerch and Tornado-S, as well as RBK-500 cluster bombs and PBK-500 gliding bombs.
What are the arrows of death capable of?
Military expert Yuri Knutov called the Motif a smart ammunition and precision-guided weapon with a good damaging effect.
According to the expert, the "arrows of death" are something like a cluster warhead that opens and is ejected, eventually hitting an object. They can be individually aimed at the target, have good accuracy and a higher penetration effect than other ammunition.
At the same time, Knutov pointed out, the total cost for defeating the equipment itself is much lower. "For example, in order to try to disable some armored vehicles, you need to use, for example, the Grad package, and in this case, one Tornado-S missile is enough," he explained.
The military expert recalled that the Tornado-S is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 120 kilometers. "Thus, we have the opportunity to hit enemy targets at a sufficiently long range and at the same time with high accuracy," Knutov continued his thought.
In conclusion, he called the new individual guidance combat elements "Motif" a high-precision weapon of a new generation capable of inflicting much more damage to the enemy with a lower cost.
Why were the "arrows of death" created?
A military observer, retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok, explained that such ammunition is being created with the aim of adopting a light and compact weapon capable of independently searching for and striking enemy armored combat vehicles.
He pointed out that the warhead of the Motif is a shaped charge weighing about 4.5 kilograms. It can penetrate up to 70 millimeters of homogeneous armor at a 30-degree angle.
According to the expert, the use of such self-aiming combat elements will make it possible to effectively hit a wide range of enemy targets and objects at long range: from armored combat vehicles and trucks to command posts.
"The massive use of death arrows can create extensive damage zones for enemy equipment and manpower and fully justify its name," the retired colonel explained, stressing that there are no effective means of countering self—targeting combat elements yet.
