Drones with shaped-charge warheads for bridges: what we know

Russia has built drones with a special shaped-charge warhead capable of cutting through the load-bearing steel structures of bridges, Ukrainian expert Beskrestnov has said. Such a warhead was most likely used in the attack on the North Bridge in Kyiv at the end of October.

Destroying a massive bridge with an ordinary missile is surprisingly difficult: a strike from above usually damages only the roadway, which can be repaired relatively quickly, while the piers and the steel structure remain intact. Beskrestnov recalled the Antonivskyi Bridge over the Dnipro in Kherson: everyone remembers how much it withstood before Russian forces finally blew it up from the other bank. According to him, nobody believed that bridges could be destroyed by drones, but Russia has created a warhead that “can cut through anything” and has demonstrated its effect on a power line pylon.

Unlike conventional high-explosive munitions, which damage everything around them with a blast wave and fragments, such a warhead uses the shaped-charge effect: the explosion directs its energy into an extremely narrow, powerful jet that can literally “slice through” even hardened metal and reinforced concrete. The munition is designed to hit the load-bearing steel structures of bridges and the pylons of high-voltage lines. Such linear shaped charges have been known for a long time; what is new is their use on drones.

Drones with such a warhead try to strike vulnerable structural points, such as bridge supports, in order to cause serious damage and put a bridge out of action for a long time. Military experts point to a weak spot: this requires absolutely precise guidance. For the jet to cut through the structure, the drone must hit a strictly defined point, and at the slightest miss the destructive effect drops sharply.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz