On August 24, 2023, the Achilles UAV unit of the 92nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted a video documenting their disassembling of a US-made 155 mm M483A1 artillery cluster bomb carrying dozens of M42 and M46 submunitions in order to extract and use the bomblets as ammunition for armed UAVs. Artillery cluster bombs were provided by the US to Ukraine in July 2023, and represent an extremely significant addition to the Ukrainian arsenal. The inclusion of M42 and M46 bomblets as armed UAV ammunition adds to the variety of types of cluster submunitions that already exist in the arena that have been repurposed as UAV ammunition, mainly by the Ukrainian side. This use of M42 and M46 bomblets, which are standard AP/AT munition items, as ammunition for armed UAVs has proved effective in accurately hitting targets – mainly armored ones – but involves great risk due to the manual arming of the sensitive fuze required to do this.
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