Just a few days ago, russian military bloggers reported that their invasion army fighting against Ukraine began to put improvised anti-drone protection on motorcycles. The russian army uses motorbikes as transport in assault and logistics operations, and since the vehicles have to operate near the frontline, they need appropriate protection. That's how the russians came up with slat armor enhancements.
Now there's the first video showing the destruction of such an "enhanced" motorcycle by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, namely by FPV drone operators from the 90/81 Apachi detachment.
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Judging by the video, before being hit, the russian motorcyclist was lost in unfamiliar territory. Ukrainian operators of a reconnaissance Mavic quadcopter saw him struggling to find the way and promptly dispatched an FPV drone which caught up with the motorcycle and hit it with explosives.
That might seem to be the end of the story, but the fact is that despite all the absurdity of an idea to encage a motorcycle, it worked. After all, the clip following right after the strike shows the driver running away from his destroyed motorcycle.
That said, we should note that the number of people who were riding this vehicle is unknown. Presuming it was a motorcycle with a sidecar, then it could carry three people, one of whom was able to survive. Nonetheless, the fact remains: the "cope cage" saved his life.
Another nuance is that, quite possibly, the ammunition fitted to the FPV drone had a simple shaped-charge warhead — although quite effective against armored vehicles, it does not provide proper anti-personnel effect of fragmentation blast. But considering the outcome of this episode, the mania of fitting cages on top of motorbikes could become popular within the russian invasion army pretty soon.
At least this is how it was with tanks: after just one "turtle tank" appearing on the battlefield, the trend spread like an avalanche and has resulted in the occasional assaults with barely recognizable tanks, buried underneath massive shed-like protective superstructures.
Worth reminding, the army of russia uses motorcycles both in assault and logistics. Particularly, a few days ago, a photo appeared in open sources showing a motorcycle adjusted for transporting ammunition — mortar shells, in this case. Two munitions were attached to the motorcycle itself, and one more was carried in the driver's backpack.
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