re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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So what should the following armor have done?

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Honestly, I do not know the armor battle drill for encountering mines specifically, maybe Segundo or Vader can elaborate.

First, they should fall back following their tracks. I suppose spinning around on an axis makes the most sense for speed. The last thing they want to do is go forward or stay in the area. Any obstacle should be covered by direct or indirect fire. If you stay there either the enemy will be close and open fire, preferably by taking out the rear vehicle, or a forward observer which could be a drone now will begin to direct indirect fire onto the tanks. The artillery in the area should already have accurate coordinates for the minefield.

So move back to a safer area and either call in the engineers or start prepping and carrying out your breaching operation yourself. They may have to do the latter since engineer assets are limited. Even the US military has limited engineer assets and I have seen little evidence of combat engineers in the combined arms of Russia. I saw some in the initial column headed to Kyiv but the lack of it on the battlefield indicates a lot of it may be lost. One general rule on the battlefield is shoot the funny stuff. Vehicles and material that looks different from the rest are there for some specific purpose, taking them out almost always has a bigger impact on the fighting ability of a unit than something there is a lot of. Engineer vehicles "look funny" so they get targeted. The only engineer assets I have seen operating on the battlefield for Russia are rear-echelon bridging and trenching machines.

How engineers or infantry would breach the field depends a lot on the type and size of the field and what assets are available. In a perfect world, you would have a MICLIC (mine clearing line charge) available and move it up to the start of the minefield. It fires an "explosive rope" out 100 meters and when it detonates it blows all the mines in a 100m x 8m lane using overpressure. The lane still has to be proofed and marked (not so much in heavy fire and/or during a time sensitive operation). A MICLIC requires fairly good control of the area which is not always available. Combat engineers often have a very dangerous job. One alternative is using an armored vehicle with a mine flail or mine rollers to clear a lane. Less effective but still can be used is a cluster bomb which if properly placed can act line a MICLIC, artillery shelling can have a similar effect but isn't as effective and leaves those big craters. A group of combat engineers with blocks of C4 with timed fuses running through a surface laid field is effective but dangerous. You also have the old school slow version of disarming each mine but they have to be treated as if they all have anti-tampering devices. This makes for slow excruciating work even if it is surface laid on soil, if it is on concrete or asphalt where you can't dig and get your hand underneath to probe for an anti-tampering device it requires you to GENTLY slide each mine to the edge of the roadway.

The alternative to dealing with the minefield is to find an alternate route, however, if the enemy is using a minefield and natural obstacles to channel you in a particular direction you can be almost certain you will be entering a kill zone.


TLDR: go back from whence you came and formulate a plan, going forward is a likely death wish.



ETA I should say in fairness the tankers behind may have thought it was artillery.