 |
| Ukraine Army and the U.S.-made Javelin ATGM |
 |
| Ukraine Army and the UK NLAW ATGM |
26 February 2022: This special edition SITREP is to highlight the incredible courage, professionalism and key weapons employed by the Ukrainian Army in its against-all-odds defense of their country against invading Union State (Russia and Byelarus) miltary forces.
Beyond the heroic Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 fighterpilot ace known as the "Ghost of Kyiv" who shot down a half dozen Russian jets in the first two days of the current war, or the Ukrainian Army soldier who sacrified his life to blow up a bridge providing direct access to the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, there are many as yet untold accounts of battlefield heroics. Among these heroics are the hundreds of individual Ukrainian soldiers with their shoulder-mounted ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) who are personally responsible for exacting fearsome tolls of destruction upon Russian and Byelarusian main battle tanks on every axis of the invasion forces seriously blunting their advance into Ukrainian territory.
The US-made Javelin and the UK NLAW (NextGen Light Anti Tank Weapon made by Sweden's Saab Bofors) ATGM's have destroyed hundreds of enemy tanks and armored troop carriers at ranges from 20 meters to 800 meters, meaning the ATGM gunners are in very danger close range of their armored prey. Both the Javelin and NLAW are not technically guided missiles, but are instead 'fire and forget, anti-tank missiles. One a lock on the target has ben achieved the misile flies down range and pops up in the terminal phase of flight in front of the target and strikes the armored vehice at its weakest point - from above. A devastating weapon to be sure that has killed nearly 1,000 enemy armored vehicles in the first three days of the war. There wil be many more kills as the US and UK have provided nearly 4,000 of these tank killers to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
As noted in the previous SITREP, a Ukrainian observer of these weapons in action noted something which is mentioned in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39. He stated that when struck by these ATGMs Russian tanks catch fire and burn fiercely. Notwithstanding expensive counter-measures which have yet to be developed and proven in combat, Western ATGMs are without question game changing weapons which may ultimately obsolete tank warfare as the world has known it over the past century. Ukraine is the proving ground.
