Enemy’s BMP-3 combat vehicles had been a trouble for Ukrainian forces, until they got destroyed with the help of the "Kropyva" (Nettle) combat control system. How it happened, is told by a story from ArmyInform.
A group of russian soldiers on their BMP-3 IFVs were quite a problem to the Ukrainian military since it was almost impossible to destroy the vehicles with direct aim: russians hit the Ukrainian troops from prepared positions and were well camouflaged; when Ukrainian tanks and ATGMs fired on them, russian artillery was there to cover.
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The occupiers managed to destroy several tanks and other Ukrainian armored vehicles – "they practically blocked the advance of our units", said the platoon commander of a tank brigade with the call sign "Balu". His main task was to destroy enemy BMPs. The question was how to do it. And here another Ukrainian development came in handy – the "Kropyva" combat control system.
"I remember well the 2015 experience, when the tankers used for the first time the tablets with the "Kropyva" artillery software provided by "Army-SOS" (ed. – a non-profit organization). Even back then, this program allowed one of our units to destroy with indirect fire a "wandering" mortar that really bothered us by firing from different locations," says the Ukrainian officer.
According to him, the advantage of working with this system is that the enemy not only doesn’t see the tanks of the Ukrainian military, but also cannot even hear the shots, instead getting a "fervent greeting". So when the commander of the infantry unit told him about the problem, "Balu" knew exactly what to do.
When the enemy is hiding using the area’s landscape, the most important thing is to find his position with the help of a drone, "Balu" notes. One day, the UAV operator managed to find all the three positions which the russian BMPs were firing from.
The data received from the drone is quickly processed, and the targets’ coordinates are transmitted to the tankers. The first russian BMP-3 was destroyed with the first shots of the Ukrainian tanks, then the same pattern with the other machines: "Get the data from the UAV, enter the coordinates, hit." In the end, according to the scouts, the enemy BMPs one by one "disappeared off the air. Forever."
The tactical unit combat control system “Kropyva” is intended for the automation of a range of management tasks at various levels: from battalion, company and platoon to a single vehicle.
The software can be used by a variety of units of the Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (artillery, armored vehicles, infantry or reconnaissance units, etc.). "Kropyva" helps to combine the means of intelligence, control and firepower of diverse units of the Armed Forces into a single information field. According to the NATO classification, this system belongs to the C2 type (command and control).
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