Fortifications, built by russians in several lines along 1,000 km of Ukrainian frontline include densely mined fields intended to stop Ukrainian forces from counteroffensive activities. Earlier we saw russian army deploy their recently developed Zemledeliye remote minelaying system, which first appeared in public only in 2020.
Now they also brought another similar system, although less capable. The UMZ (Universal Mine Layer in russian) is a Soviet engineering vehicle based on a modified ZIL-131V chassis. At least one such system was spotted by Ukrainian soldiers from the Omega Zahid special unit of the National Guard of Ukraine.
Read more: Russian Army Deploys Zemledeliye Mine Laying System to Hinder Ukrainian Forces in Zaporizhzhia
The footage was published on the social media page of the Escadrone school for FPV-drones operators. Apparently, it took three UAVs with explosives to take the vehicle out. This is the first recorded case of a russian UMZ destroyed in Ukraine.
The UMZ was designed for deployment of anti-tank, anti-personnel or combined minefields over a remote area. The system has six rotating launchers with tubes for cluster munitions. One launcher can fit, for example, 30 PTM-3 anti-tank mines (total 180 mines in a salvo). The fire control panel is inside the cabin, the crew is two personnel.
The system can deploy a variety of scatterable mines such as PTM-1, PTM-3 anti-tank, or PFM-1 (a.k.a. Butterfly mine), POM-1, POM-2 anti-personnel mines, etc. The only condition is that the mine is compatible with the cluster shells of the following types: KSF-1, KSF-1S, KSF-1S-0.5, KSF-1S-0.5SK, KSO-1, KPOM-2, KPTM-1, KPTM-3.
While deploying a minefield, the vehicle is moving at a speed of 10 to 40 km/h (up to 25 mph), one line of mines is 4,100 to 4,200 meters long. Mining distance is 55 to 120 m, full system reloading time by a crew of two is 100 to 120 minutes.
Read more: For the First Time, russians Lost Their ISDM Zemledeliye Remote Mine-Laying System (Video)
