The Kherson counter offensive launched by the Ukrainian Armed Forces has continued for several days. In this operation, the Ukrainian army also brought out a lot of advanced weapons, including the Turkish TB-2 drone, which had been silent on the battlefield for a long time before, but now it has appeared on the battlefield again , according to a video footage released by the Ukrainian army, TB-2 UACV has achieved great results on the battlefield. Since the resistance of the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive mainly comes from the Russian artillery, the key target of the TB-2 drone is the Russian artillery.
In the video released by the Ukrainian Army, it can be seen that a mortar position of the Russian army was targeted by the TB-2 drone. The drone first fired a laser beam at the mortar position, and the reflection point of the laser beam was on the Russian army position. There were intermittent flashes, and then a laser-guided missile hit the mortar position and destroyed the mortar.
First Ukrainian TB2 footage released in a bit, showing a pair of strikes on a Russian 2B11 mortar and an Ural-43206.
There is a possibility that Russian frontline air defenses have been degraded by recent Ukrainian HARM strikes, allowing TB2s to operate near the front again. pic.twitter.com/17HciWs8pK
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 1, 2022
In another video, the ammunition supply vehicle transporting the artillery shells was also targeted, and immediately after that, the TB-2 drone fired a missile, which destroyed the ammunition supply vehicle.
The Ukrainian army also showed the complete process of the destruction of a Russian 152mm self-propelled gun. The Russian army’s large-caliber self-propelled artillery is currently a very big threat to the Ukrainian army: this kind of artillery has good maneuverability, strong protection ability and high degree of automation plus heavy firepower, and has the flexibility to hit and run, so it is difficult for the Ukrainian artillery to destroy this kind of self-propelled artillery guns, but after being targeted by the TB-2 drone, the Russian self-propelled artillery was destroyed as a laser-guided missile hit the artillery position, there was a strong explosion as shown in the footage, which should be of the internal ammunition of the Russian self-propelled artillery.
Of course, the above-mentioned videos are just some of the combat clips of the TB-2 drone in this counter-offensive operation. From this, it can also be seen that the damage ability of this drone is indeed very strong. Once something is targeted by it, it is basically impossible to escape from being destroyed.
Some people may question this, since the TB-2 UAV is so capable, why hasn’t the Ukrainian army used it on a large scale for a long time? In fact, in the initial stage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, TB-2 drones also participated in the war on a large scale, but at that time, due to the very large number of anti-aircraft missiles deployed by the Russian army on the front line, it caused heavy losses to TB-2 drones. According to the Russian battle report, a total of more than 60 TB-2 drones were shot down. Such heavy losses scared Ukraine from using the remaining TB-2 drones into battle.:
However, recently, the Ukrainian army has used US-supplied anti-radiation missiles to frequently hit Russia’s air defense missile systems, causing a large number of Russian air defense missiles to be destroyed, and the few surviving air defense missiles dare not easily turn on again. In this case, the TB-2, which has lost its only threat, can naturally come into the war theater to search and hunt important Russian targets now.
Now, TB-2 drones are appearing on the battlefield again, and they are delivering great results. This is what was expected when the American made anti-radiation missiles hunted down Russian anti-aircraft missiles on a large scale. Because the Russian air defense system has been destroyed and suppressed now, the Russian army has basically no method to stop the Ukrainian TB-2 drone.
So in the current situation, instead of considering how to deal with the TB-2 drone, it is better to consider how to stop the attack of the American anti-radiation missiles as soon as possible. Because as long as the threat of anti-radiation missiles is not eliminated, the Russian air defense system will not function properly, so the threat of TB-2 drones will not be eliminated.