Although Russia claims its new generation Hermes anti-tank missile is a weapon capable of destroying all types of tanks from a long range, the reality of the battlefield shows that it has not yet been able to overcome reflective armour Nozh explosion.
Hermes is Russia’s latest generation of long-range anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), which was only recently accepted into combat. In addition to destroying tanks, this weapon can even be used against aircraft and small ships.
The working mechanism of Hermes is as follows: radar or drones will scour and search for targets. The missile is then launched at a speed of 1,300 m/s, flies to the designated area and searches for the target there.
When determining the coordinates of the target and the motion vector (for helicopters, also add the altitude), the Hermes rocket rises, then dives vertically down, not giving the target a chance to escape.
The power of the fragmentation combat section weighs 30 kg of strong explosive TNT, plus the kinetic energy makes it equivalent to a 250 kg bomb dropped on the enemy’s head.
Radar and opto-electronic systems with television channels and thermal images, laser targeting/telemetry equipment and automatic target tracking devices allow the use of Hermes around the clock. That is, just detect, press the “catch” button, then press the “launch” button and then “forget”.
In addition to the Hermes version mounted on wheeled vehicles for the army, there is also a Hermes-A variant to equip attack aircraft and helicopters; The Hermes-K is mounted on small boats/boats and also the Hermes-S is a fixed variant for coastal defence.
Thanks to the similarity with the launcher and guidance mechanism of pantsir S1, Russia even plans to integrate Hermes into the aforementioned air defence system to create a multi-purpose weapon complex similar to the IM-Shorad of America.
Although the Hermes missile has only been officially accepted into service with the Russian Army, some photos taken in eastern Ukraine show that the T-64BM Bulat tank may have become a victim of it.
The first is the fact that some Ukrainian tanks were suddenly hit by a rocket from a “rooftop” missile, while the eastern separatists did not have a similar weapon, leading to the assumption that Russia was quietly testing New ATGM.
The evidence became clearer when the missile casing was later found at the scene, which was identified as the launch stage of the Hermes rocket, which was to be removed before the combat part entered the target.
Although many tanks were destroyed, Ukraine’s latest generation of explosive reactive armor (ERA) Nozh also proved effective in the war, saving many tanks from being destroyed.
It is easy to see that a T-64BM2 of the Ukrainian National Guard was hit by an anti-tank missile, 2 Nozh explosive reactive armor modules worked, the main armour was not penetrated, the vehicle did not lose combat ability and could return about the repair.
The reality of the battlefield shows that Ukraine is still one of the world’s leading tank manufacturers, in addition to creating tanks with powerful firepower, their level of solidity is also not to be underestimated.
Nozh explosive reactive armour is now integrated on all new production T-84 Oplot tanks, in addition, many modernized T-64s will also carry this ERA, with real combat results in the East., Ukrainian crews will be more confident in the equipped protective vehicles.