Ukrainian Drones Add A New Dimension To Mine Warfare

Drones have transformed mine warfare in Ukraine. Surveillance drones spy out movements behind enemy lines, and drone mine layers can leave explosives where they will do the most damage. Mines have changed up from being random hazards, to efficient precision weapons, as the Russians have discovered.

The Ukrainian started mining with existing munitions, but rapid evolution has produced more capable mines which are now being made at scale.

Mine Warfare 101

Anti-tank mines the size of a dinner plate and activated by a pressure plate, are traditional defensive weapons dating back to WW1. They are usually laid out in vast fields ahead of defensive positions, marked with barbed wire and warning signs

Such minefields slow down or halt an enemy assault. Alternatively, certain areas might be mined to block them off, channeling attacks into avenues covered by anti-tank guns.

Mines were buried underground for concealment, unless the minefield was laid in a hurry when might be simply placed on the surface. This made them easier to avoid but kept thew deterrent effect.

The US developed scatterable mines during the Vietnam conflict in the 1960s. These are a fraction the size of traditional mines, with a magnetic sensor triggered by a vehicle passing over them. Scatterable mines were dropped by aircraft or helicopters, and later by special artillery rounds and rockets. This enabled commanders to create minefields behind enemy lines to block or channel movement or simply to cause casualties. The USSR soon fielded their own versions.

These mines are scattered randomly. A 155mm RAAMS howitzer shell (a type supplied to Ukraine) distributes nine mines in an area two hundred metres across, giving only a small chance that a tank will hit one. Multiple rounds are needed to create a dense minefield and produce a good chance of a hit.

Specialist engineering vehicles like Russia’s truck-mounted UMZ system fitted with scatterable mine launchers can create instant minefields, distributing hundreds of mines out to a range of 100 meters in minutes. In Ukraine we have also seen small Uncrewed Ground Vehicles or UGVs used as minelayers.

But drones take mine warfare into another dimension.

TM-62: Brute Force

The Soviet TM-62 mine, first introduced in 1960, weighs around 20 pounds including a 16-pound explosive charge. TM-62s have been laid in vast numbers by both sides. It is a simple, basic weapon which relied on brute explosive force for its effect. The TM-62 is powerful enough to destroy a tank track or blow off a wheel and immobilize it or destroy lighter vehicles.

Ukraine’s ‘Baba Yaga’ multicopter bombers started dropping modified TM-62s as bombs. Then the operators experimented with laying TM-62s as mines. They could be placed on the trails left by tracked vehicles, or on roads miles behind enemy lines, giving a very high chance of a hit.

Any vehicle immobilized by a mine will be spotted by the reconnaissance drones, and bombers and FPVs dispatched to finish it off before it can be recovered

PTM-1S: Lightweight, Lacks Punch

Other drone operators wanted a lightweight mine which could be carried by FPVs and other small drones. They tried the PTM-1S, a scatter mine launched by Russian engineering vehicles and dropped in cluster bombs.

At just three pounds, the PTM-1S is effective against soft-skinned vehicles but lacks the destructive power of the TM-62. OSINT analyst Roy, who has tracked the evolution of drone-laid mines, notes that the liquid explosive charge does not reliably destroy tank tracks. It is an anti-vehicle rather than anti-tank mine and seems to have fallen out of favor.

“The PTM-1S isn’t seen much,” Roy told me. He notes that he has even seen Ukrainians cannibalizing the PTM-1S to make drone bombs, suggesting they did not rate it highly in its original role

PTM-3: Slicing And Dicing With Linear Charges

Last summer Ukraine’s elite Birds of Magyar drone unit started placing mines on roads behinds enemy lines at night. Russian military social media lit up with warnings and reports of casualties. A Russian map showed that every segment of the 72-kilometre road network around Krynky had been mined. Logistics vehicles taking supplies to the front were being destroyed at an unprecedented rate.

The miner’s preferred weapon was the ten-pound PTM-3, which is significantly bigger than the PTM-1S but has a far more effective design. Rather than simply relying on blast, this is a shaped charge weapon, Each of the four sides of the PTM-3 is a linear shaped charge which will, when detonated, cut through almost anything immediately above it, neatly severing a tank tread or severely damaging a soft vehicle.

The mines were placed at night, making them difficult to spot from vehicles driving at high speed without lights because of the threat of drone attacks. Birds of Magyar were highly satisfied with their mining campaign and launched a fundraising campaign for Ukrainian-made version called PPTM.

“It is very inexpensive with a simpler design but has a powerful C4 type explosive,” says Roy. “The Ukrainian mines have the old Soviet fuze replaced with a ‘Jonni’ electronic magnetic-influence plus anti-handling gyroscope before they are dropped.”

Birds of Magyar say the new mines cost just $50 each and raised funds for 20,000 of them.

To make demining more challenging, the Ukrainians also produce wooden replica PPTMs which look just like the real thing. These are likely much lighter so can be mixed in with real mines.

PTM-L1: Smaller But Deadlier With U.S. Technology

The next step of drone mine evolution came with the Ukrainian PTM-L1, a cylinder 4 inches across and two and a half inches high, and weighing about four pounds. What makes it effective is the concave metal ‘lens’ at each end. When the mine detonates, the lens is converted into a slug of metal moving at extremely high speed known as an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) or Self-Forging Fragment (SFF).

“A typical EFP is basically like a single hyper velocity bullet that can punch through armor and create violent spall events inside of an armored vehicle,” Brian Davies, CEO of drone munition makers Kraken Kinetics told me.

Davies notes that an EFP can usually penetrate a thickness of armor equivalent to the diameter of the charge, so in this case it can punch through four inches of steel. That is more than enough to go through the belly armor even the latest Russian T-90M tank.

Close inspection suggests that the PTM-L1 is a direct copy of the M70 artillery-delivered RAAMS mines supplied by the U.S. The main difference may be in the modern fuse.

As a U.S. Army Manual on mine warfare explains, such mines destroy vehicles rather than just immobilize them (“M-Kill”):

“Anti-tank scatter mines are designed to produce a K-Kill instead of an M-Kill. They produce a kill by using an SFF warhead. The warhead penetrates the vehicle’s belly armor, and spalling metal from the vehicle (caused by the mine blast) kills occupants instantly. Even though the crew is killed, the drive train may be undamaged and the vehicle may continue to move. On enemy tanks with autoloaders, the detonation of rounds in the belly-mounted ammunition carousel is very likely.”

IEDs with EFP warheads, believed to have originated in Iran, were notably dangerous to U.S. forces in Iraq, killing some 196 troops.

The PTM-L1 looks like an industrial rather than a craft product and is likely being mass produced.

Smaller, Smarter, More Dangerous

The M70 has an EFP lens at both ends because it lands randomly. The PTM-1L copies this, though being placed by a drone should mean that it is possible to ensure the business end is pointed towards the enemy. The next generation may be able to dispense with one lens and save weight.

Aiming is still approximate, as it is triggered by a magnetic fuse, so the effects are unpredictable.

“The more accurately an EFP is aimed at vulnerable spots on an armored vehicle, that are ideally proximate to ammo stores or fuel, the better the terminal results will be,” says Davies. “Any sort of random placement will yield a random result.”

Future mines may have smart sensors for accurate aiming – and to prevent the mines being spoofed by drone minesweepers with a piece of metal on a line.

Tactics are also likely to evolve. Scatter mining is inefficient because it distributes a few mines over a large area. Drone mining puts mines exactly where they are needed and can be used to block an opponent’s advance or retreat, or cut their supply lines. Drones may quickly ring any static opponent with mines, penning them in.

Counter-drone weapons and jammers may provide protection from direct drone attack. But as drones increase their strike range – according to TASS, Ukrainian FPVs can now reach 25 miles – so does the scope for indirect attacks by mines. In the future, drone mines will be everywhere.