Ukraine Has Homemade Tanks? by Ishaan Pareek
Does Ukraine have homemade tanks?
A video released by the Ukrainian General Staff shows the testing of a homemade tank destroyer or a self-propelled gun. The caption was the following: “MTLB army tractor + MT-12 Rapira anti-tank gun = self-propelled anti-tank gun”
A tank destroyer is a combat vehicle armed with a gun of decent caliber but have limited operational qualities, such as a lack of armor and slowness. A self-propelled anti-tank gun is an gun with a large caliber,and in some cases , can even one shot tanks. The platform's hull is known to be an MT-LB tracked armored vehicle, and the vehicle’s armament is a mounted MT-12 Rapira anti-tank gun. Now the question is can it defend its own against enemy tanks and troops? Even though the Ukrainian General Staff said:
“The system has already been tested and is in the combat zone”
As shown in the video, there was no armor to protect the sides of the turret/gun so the loader would be very vulnerable to small arms fire , shrapnel , grenades ,and other hazards. If this self-propelled anti-tank gun was on the front lines , it would be easily destroyed. Because of this the self-propelled anti-tank gun is probably far away from the front lines, providing fire support. But that still might not save the self-propelled anti-tank gun , because of the pace of combat, a tank could sneak past ukrainian lines and wreak havoc on tanks , and possibly this self-propelled anti-tank gun . A tank could also ambush it and destroy it. Because of these weaknesses, the self-propelled anti-tank gun might not be incredibly effective, though it can still probably punch a hole through a few tanks. It is amazing to see what Ukraine is coming up with in these difficult times.