Why Ukrainian Military Repurposes Javelin Warheads for FPV Drones?
Sometimes the Defense Forces of Ukraine are forced to do rather unusual things with Western weapons. For example, to disassemble the FGM-148 Javelin ATGM in order to remove the warhead and equip an FPV drone with it.
The Fatum unit of the 3rd Assault Brigade’s anti-tank battalion did this by filming the process of extracting the missile from the launch container.
The unit explained why they had to do this, because no one in their right mind would use a warhead of high-precision Javelin missile for an FPV drone.
“The missile was damaged, so its further usage is impossible,” Fatum unit stateted.
Therefore, in a situation where the missile is inoperable, the decision to remove the warhead from it may seem appropriate. Eventually, we are talking about not one, but two cumulative warheads (Javelin has a tandem warhead) with weight of 8.4 kg.
At the same time, the idea to use the infrared guidance of Javelin ATGM may appear, but its guidance has no significant value. Firstly, it has a resolution of only 64×64 pixels. Secondly, it requires cooling, which is done using a replaceable battery and argon cooling.
After all, a situation where an inoperable missile from an ATGM has to be disassembled because of a warhead cannot be considered ordinary. It indicates that the issue of providing FPV drones with warheads needs to be changed for the better.
Earlier War Ukraine-Russia News Hub reported that Ukraine had made a new speed record for armed FPV drone.