Thread by @SenftPatrick

🇷🇺⚡🇺🇦

Interesting observation from the war in #Ukraine️:

#Russia may be experiencing substantial supply issues of Kontakt-1 basic explosive reactive armour (ERA).

ERA is a vital component of Russian armour protection and was generally believed to be readily available.

Several telegram channels are looking for Russians who can produce the metal containers for Kontakt-1 explosive reactive armour (ERA) or spare some materials for them.

They post the machine drawings and of these containers, and recruiting machine shops who could produce them.

Some quotes from Russian channels:
"the tankers are unable to get any [Kontakt-1]".

Apparently from the Donetsk area: "[we] need 3000 pieces of remote sensing elements [ERA] plus monthly expense in battles is 1000-1200 pieces"

Kontakt-1 ERA is a fairly simple piece, introduced in the 1980s and consisting of a metal box with two plastic explosive liners (image 1).

However, against shaped charges a Kontakt-1 can substantially improve the armour protection (image 2).

Crowd-sourcing Kontakt-1 blocks is no definitive proof that Russia is running out of ERA blocks. But, ERA blocks are an expandable piece and cannot be sourced from #China.

So, these efforts may be another aspect of the attrition Russia faces admits the #counteroffensive.

Sources:
Telegram
t.me/vsvetesobytij/…
t.me/nopasaranrus/1…
t.me/makers2fron/10…

Infos on the Kontakt-1 ERA:
thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/p/kontakt-1.ht…
btvt.info/4ourarticles/d…

Cc: @AbraxasSpa, @alexatesic_teso, @KurtPelda, @HHK_Online, @RALee85, @MidOfficer, @FideliusSchmid, @julianborger.