It seems that the Ukraine army is using commonly available tools to create highly effective weapons, including 3D printing.
In a fascinating Twitter thread by Ian Matveev, the army’s approach is explained in some detail.
The method is to co-opt grenades or other small explosives from general weaponry, and repurpose them as small precision bombs dropped from everyday remote control drones.
Above we see one of the base weapons, a VOG-17 grenade, that would be converted into a bomb by 3D printing a shank and nose. At top you can see an example where the weapon is fully assembled and in action. This is loaded onto a slightly modified drone that can release the bomb when over a target.
More information is in this Twitter thread, but a warning: there are actual scenes of bombs falling on soldiers, so you may not want to watch.
Evidently this adhoc weapons system is incredibly effective. Here you can see a frame from one video showing one of these bombs falling directly into the open sunroof of a Russian vehicle.
The important aspect of this development is that 3D printing allowed the combination of two other technologies to create something entirely new. All it took was the creativity to invent the concept and access to the grenades, drones and printers.
Consider the cost of this adhoc weapons system: it’s incredibly inexpensive compared to the targets and personnel being destroyed. In industry 3D printing has been known to dramatically reduce costs of prototyping, but here it has dramatically reduced the costs of weapons systems.
Via Twitter
