Ukrainians destroyed another strange Russian “frankenstein”: they did not immediately understand what they were dealing with | Business

It wasn’t until the operator pointed his explosives-laden drone at the Russian vehicle and detonated it that Ukrainian observers realized it wasn’t a TOS-1 after all, but something much stranger and rarer.

It was a new type of missile vehicle that combined the hull of the T-72B tank from the 1970s and the RBU-6000 naval anti-ship missile launcher of the same age. “The Frankenstein of a Russian tank and sea-launcher,” said the commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade.

The RBU-6000-armed T-72B, the latest in a long line of improvised Frankenmachines that have fought in Russia’s 29-month long war against Ukraine, is further evidence of the growing Russian problem.

Since more than 16 thousand people were lost in Ukraine. purpose-built combat vehicles, the Russian military is struggling to build or retrieve sufficient replacement vehicles from long-term storage depots. The Russian military went to war in Ukraine with about 50 TOS-1s – and lost half of them.

The lack of the TOS-1 explains why Russia is likely importing North Korean missile vehicles, as well as mounting sea-launched missile launchers on derelict T-72Bs, thousands of which sit in open storage across Russia.

Although the RBU-6000 was originally designed to sink submarines, it is a decent weapon for surface warfare as well. Although inaccurate and therefore not suitable for precision strikes, it should serve well in suppressing enemy troops.

The problem is the range. Two dozen TOS-1 missiles weighing 170 kg can fly up to 10 km. The RBU-6000 launches a dozen 110 kg missiles at probably half that range. The closer the launcher is to the front line, the greater the risk of enemy fire.

The fact that the Ukrainians have decommissioned half of the Russian-owned TOS-1s further underscores this danger. It is not for nothing that the Russians started using ground-based RBU-6000s in Ukraine about a year ago, and the Russians have been steadily increasing their armament – at first they were mounted on weakly protected MT-LB tractors and trucks, then on old T-80 tank bodies, and finally – on at least one T-72B. In April, Ukrainian forces destroyed one of the RBU-6000 mounted on a truck.

Still, an RBU-6000 is an RBU-6000, no matter what the engineers attach it to. It’s a pack of 12 fragile missiles, each of which will almost certainly explode when hit by an explosive drone, artillery pieces, or even a few machine gun rounds.