Russian Army Equips Lancet-3 Loitering Strike Drone With Anti-Tank Mine As Its Warhead
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A new image circulating on Telegram indicates that at least one Russian Army unit operating the Lancet-3 (Izdeliye-51) loitering propeller-driven fixed-wing strike drone has substituted the standard warhead with a PTM-3 anti-tank mine. The installation of different warheads on the ZALA Group’s Lancet family of loitering fixed-wing strike drones and other strike munitions reflects the evolving roles to which such short-range strike munitions are applied in the Russia-Ukraine War and the importance of warhead optimization in small strike munitions that are limited to very light warheads.
When an unknown quantity of specimens of ZALA Group’s Lancet family of loitering fixed-wing strike munitions was first used in combat in the context of the Syrian Civil War in the early 2020s, loitering strike munitions of this type were primarily envisaged as armaments for use against enemy personnel and lightly armoured, if not wholly unarmoured, vehicles. The Lancet and its international counterparts, including the American Switchblade family and the now expansive Israeli HERO family, which were developed earlier in the 2010s, were not optimized for use against armoured vehicles of any type let alone main battle tanks. As a result, loitering fixed-wing strike drones such as these, which tend to be very light—weighing no more than 10-15 kilograms in most instances—were restricted to fairly light high explosive-fragmentation warheads that typically weighed just 3-5 kilograms at most—which is comparable to most human-portable anti-tank missile designs.
When the Russian Army began to use the Lancet family of loitering strike drones against Ukraine in the summer of 2022, very limited quantities were initially available and Russian operators tended to prioritize the employment of the Lancet family—which includes the larger Lancet-3 (Izdeliye-51) and the much smaller and lighter Lancet-2 (Izdeliye-52)—against higher value targets, including heavily armoured vehicles such as tanks, against which the Lancet family was not optimized notwithstanding its inherent capability to undertake a top-attack profile against the roofs of armoured vehicles, which tend to be poorly protected.
For more on the scale at which the Lancet family of loitering fixed-wing strike drones has been employed in the Russia-Ukraine War, consider reading one of my previous posts:
Small and light high-explosive fragmentation warheads are effective against many target classes—even several grams of high explosive material is no laughing matter—but are poorly suited for use against most armoured vehicles that weigh more than 10 or so tonnes. To be more effective as an anti-armour weapon, the Lancet family required the use of a shaped charge warhead, which has a highly directional kinetic effect on the intended target and is, therefore, very well suited to penetrating vehicular armour. It is important to note that the effects on matter, including humans outside the target vehicle, are largely incidental when a shaped charge warhead is employed, but can be enhanced through the use of a fragmentation sleeve that “repurposes” the otherwise “wasted” omnidirectional blast wave to shower the area with high velocity fragments. Stated differently, shaped charge warheads are inherently multi-purpose warheads that are heavily optimized toward imparting a highly concentrated kinetic effect against a very small surface area of matter that is perpendicular to the shaped charge warhead.
For more on the warheads used on loitering fixed-wing strike drones, consider reading one of my previous posts:
While the larger Lancet-3 has been widely employed in the Russia-Ukraine War with a KZ-6 shaped charge warhead installed, at least one Russian Army unit now appears to have substituted the KZ-6 with a PTM-3 anti-tank mine. The Soviet-origin KZ-6 is not a high-end shaped charge warhead design by any standard—larger diameter, heavier, and far more capable shaped charge warheads are installed on the likes of the Russian 9M133 Kornet (NATO: AT-14) anti-tank missile, one version of which is equipped with a tandem shaped charge that is capable of penetrating the frontal arc armour of most armoured vehicles, including most tanks (a tandem shaped charge warhead is, in practice, excessive for a loitering fixed-wing strike drone that has an inherent top-attack capability). One of the peculiarities of the Russia-Ukraine War is that both sides make extensive use of older, smaller, and lighter shaped charge warheads for various reasons—above all, low cost and widespread availability—despite the existence of far more capable newer, larger diameter, and heavier shaped charge warhead designs, including those of the tandem variety.
The PTM-3 is a scatterable magnetic influence anti-tank landmine that features multiple shaped charges of the Misnay-Schardin Effect variety (the KZ-6 and most powered anti-armour munitions use shaped charges of the Munroe Effect variety, which is conceptually similar but nevertheless distinct). Originally deployed by 122 mm, 220 mm, and 300 mm artillery rockets that dispensed PTM-3 landmines, the PTM-3 is one of the many munitions that have been repurposed by both Russia and Ukraine in a high-intensity conflict in which suitable, fabricated high explosive warheads have been in persistently short supply along the frontlines. Weighing some 4.9 kilograms, the PTM-3 landmine is around 60% heavier than the KZ-6. While the use of the PTM-3 landmine as the warhead on the Lancet-3 will likely result in greater effectiveness against certain target types, the heavier warhead necessarily results in a reduced maximum range-endurance, which is already fairly limited on the electrically-powered Lancet-3, which has a maximum take-off weight of less than 15 kilograms.
While Russia’s Lancet family of loitering fixed-wing strike drones received a lot of attention among observers of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022 and 2023, it receded in attention and importance over the course of 2024. Employment of the Lancet family increasingly registers little attention in 2025, given the surfeit of short-range strike munitions that are now available to the Russian Army. This includes armed so-called “First Person Video” (FPV) multirotor drones of both the radio frequency (RF) and fiber optic (FO) variety, crude and inexpensive fixed-wing loitering “FPV” strike drones such the Molniya and Privet-82, and a growing number of factory-built designs that can fulfill a similar function on the battlefield at distances of up to 10-40 kilometers or so much like the comparatively exquisite Lancet family. While the Lancet family retains several key advantages, these comparatively high-end loitering fixed-wing strike drones encounter increasing competition from far less expensive strike munitions that can be built—and employed—in much greater numbers. As a result, the Lancet family has increasingly become something of a niche capability for the Russian military that is best used as a higher-end adjunct to the aforementioned lower-cost and more plentiful types of strike munitions.
The availability of a new warhead option in the form of the PTM-3 may increase the appeal of the Lancet-3 going forward and be a sign of things to come. Notably, there is currently no indication that the Lancet family is available with either a thermobaric warhead—a warhead option that even exists for some Russian anti-tank missiles including the 9M133 Kornet family—or an airburst fusing mode, which can dramatically improve the effectiveness of the Lancet family and similar munitions against exposed personnel, which is increasingly the scarcest commodity for the Ukrainian Army in a conflict that is fast heading toward the start of its fifth year. Loitering fixed-wing strike drones such as the Lancet family began to dramatically reshape land warfare well before armed “FPV” multirotor drones began to be used in ever-increasing numbers. Improvements in the areas of warhead design and fusing, as well as advances in onboard automation, may well give such strike munitions a renewed lease of life.