More SMAW in Ukraine
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- čas přidán 6. 04. 2024
- Back in April 2023, we looked at the use of the SMAW Mk153 in Ukraine, since then this relatively rare rocket launcher has surfaced again semi-regularly in imagery from the war in Ukraine.
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Thanks for watching guys, more to come looking at the MSBS Grot, SCAR-H and Colt M5 in Ukraine and plenty of other stuff (wish there was more time in the week!)
Accompanying blog for this vid is here: armourersbench.com/2024/04/07/more-smaw/ Thanks - Matt
So many different weapon systems the Ukrainians have to incorporate. Must be a real logistical challenge.
I think they’re trying to concentrate the different weapons in specific units to make it somewhat easier, but spare parts and repairs must still be a nightmare.
That's what I see too. Certain groups get certain weapons. They don't spread stuff around except for stuff like Javelins.
I saw in some pictures, all the soldiers had 7.62X39 AKMs. You don't see those in Ukraine very often.
@@fridrekr7510 Yes I agree. They seem to try to standardize each unit at least. Would be a major pain to accidently send a bunch of 5.56 to a unit that was all issued AK74s I am sure. Logistic level expert.
@@fridrekr7510 its the only way
@@donwyoming1936 AKMs have been very common in the Ukrainian Army. Saw them quite a bit in pics from 2014 - 2022 prior to the full scale war.
I absolutely love this channel and its content, really feel like its criminally underrated. I’m honestly surprised the SMAW landed in Ukraine, I thought the west would keep those in stock to trade out their older disposable AT platforms that seem to work so much better, interesting.
Thanks man, appreciate it, needed that today. Thanks for watching!
They are probably still getting very dated systems. Across the board the SMAW is being replaced by newer systems
The SMAW is pretty old. The Marines were already using those in 1984.
The simple fact is they need to see how these things really work against Russian Armor currently in the field
The phone attached to the side of the weapon turning it into an indirect fire weapon is cleaver. I mean it is so simple, and since you already have everything, costs only a bit of time. Furthermore, with the app already installed, you can mount this to any weapon system and turn it into an indirect fire weapon, assuming you have the data for each weapon also saved on the phone, which I was able to find on a Google search so nothing difficult there. Imagine using a 40mm mortar, SMAW, and RPG7 indirectly one after the other and get the angle right every time. From a distance, you would appear to be some kind of ballistic god, ha.
I thought smaw is relatively widely used in ukraine because my very basic infantry unit use it together with rpg-7
I guess I didn’t know what a smaw was because it is much longer than I thought it would be!
I fired these in training in the Marine Corps back in 1989. Suprised they still exist at all.
They only phased that POS out when they got rid of Assault :(
Are they good? Like, is it better than a Carl? or an RPG?
@@Omegawerewolfx No, they are good against reinforced stationary targets and that's about it. The Carl Gustav is superior and IMHO so is the RPG due to it's size and various warheads compared to the SMAW.
@@Mac_in_the_Hat Say what? The USMC discontinued the 0351 MOS?!
@@Omegawerewolfx Absolutely not. Spotting rifles even a decade ago were worn out with tracers that didn't burn the full 500m. Altough you *can* make shots over 500m with AA rocket, the gunner has to spend quite a bit of time behind the SMAW to learn point of aim. There's only four different types of rockets. One is a trainer, one is a thermoberic which I have talked to exactly one Marine who's ever fired one in theater, a dual mode, and anti armor. The novel rocket does not have the same poi as the tracer, which makes life difficult when trying to put a rocket through a window. The dual mode has a max efective of 400m, although I've witnessed farther shots made. Jar the spotting rifle too much and you'll loose colalignment with the bore of the SMAW. Meaning without prior knowledge of poi you're completely f***ed.
This channel is so criminally under-rated. I absolutely love the content he produces and how well thought out wonderfully informative it is. Just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work and dedication you put into this channel.
Ahh thank you, very much appreciated! Thanks for the support.
as they can be fitted with Thermobaric warheads they would be excellent weapons against entrenched enemies, like buildings or bunkers. But in general the MAAWS/Carl Gustav is a more versatile weapon due to it's age and plethera of ammunition designed for it and as far as i remember, the USMC (who operated the SMAW primarily) went over to the M3/M4 Carl gustav so the munition avaliability for the SMAW is reduced
Going to be honest, I'm surprised they are not in Ukraine in larger numbers. Like you said the USMC has transitioned to the superior Carl Gustav, so I am sure the US has a huge surplus of the SMAW launchers and their rockets stockpiled. When I was in the Corps, bunker busting and destroying hardened, reinforced targets were their primary function for our assaultmen (0351).
Just scrolled down and saw this. Why on earth did we reinvent the Carl Gustav and how much money did this cost us? We build it under license already and it's drunken Swedish moose proof. I'm not seeing anything that shows the SMAW is the better weapon unless anyone else knows differently.
@@DivadNoodeldehm-lz2gm Because the the MIC doesn't get fed when the DoD buys NIH. You don't want to know how much it cost.
Lovely video.
Would be interesting to hear about Carl Gustav’s in Ukraine.
Ha, was thinking the same thing
I’ve only seen one video with one used by Foreign Legion, they fired from the Trenches
Very common in UA. Many videos how Russian forces have them as trophys.
They probably have my SMAW, after i switched MOS, and the Corps phased out 0351s.
Where is the [blank] video?
You know about what I'm asking :)
It's coming along nicely. I'm trimming down the huge number of images to a representative selection at the moment.
Ork: The Desolation of SMAW
Love this channel, keep it up :)
Thank you for the update. In addition, is there any update on the RUSSIAN A-545 AK? Thank you again.
Thank you. Re: A545 - Nothing seen since I put out my previous video. Keeping an eye out, working on a video on PKs at the moment.
I do love s'mores.
I love SMILFs
Dork
The spotting rifle ammunition is quite interesting. It is a 7.62 NATO cartridge necked up to 9mm with a hollow 9mm projectile filled with red tracer compound. The round is drilled out at the primer and a .22 Hornet blank powers it. When fired the blank is forced out of the base of the 9x51mm case actuating the mechanism. They come in a pre-loaded 5 round magazine with the first one being chrome plated to protect from corrosion in storage.
That squad of guys with Yugo M70 AB’s makes me wonder how many Ak variants are out there, and in what numbers.
There's some interesting ones that pop up. Definitely a topic for a later video.
US Marine Corp tool anti-armor anti-bunker very good system.
warm fuzzy with their creative kit, weaps, uniforms, application of after market
Everyone gangsta until some pilot takes it with him for a dogfight
I take it that we’re gonna see more footage of these weapons that have already been covered on this channel in the future
Who knows, there will probably some more updates down the line but lots of fresh topics to cover in the meantime. Thanks for watching!
I would love to know all the TOEs for the various Ukr squad loadouts and their variations... any source..? Like that razvedka squad with a SMAW; bit like a Big Red One US '44 rocket-gun recon squad..
How many nervous breakdowns do Ukrainian logistics people have on a daily basis?
I would love to talk to some of them.
well its NATO running the show, but a lot presumably
@@davestevenson9080 your schizophrenia is showing
@@davestevenson9080 "NATO running the show"
No it isn't. Ukraine and Ukraine alone decides it's strategy. Recently Biden had a hissy fit over Ukraine targetting Russian oil terminals, because he was afraid that will increase the price of oil before elections.
3:40 They all have Yugo M70 AB rifles
They do, fairly uncommon!
@@TheArmourersBench I know, and some of them have top covers i never saw beafore.
Ooh I will have to have a closer look at that.
At 3:43 the guys in the photo also had Serbian or Yugoslavian produced M70AB2s which is weird to see because of Serbia's position on the whole conflict.
I know, intriguing isn't it.
So really...its an upgraded "recoiless rifle". Cool!
Not really.
Actually yes. It's exactly that. Looking around, it's basically based on the Israeli B300. While it probably has more in common with the AT4 system and some on common with the classic bazooka, it's a general purpose ( many different warheads available), shoulder mounted, smooth bore tube firing a rocket boosted round.
Aside from some better sighting and ranging ability, these weapons all fall into the military category of low recoil or "recoiless" weapons but specifically with less back blast for use in confined spaces (read that as urban warfare).
What puts it into a similar category as the original recoiless rifles is that its not specifically or ONLY designed for anti-tank use (like the AT4). It's a general purpose weapon.
@@jessegreenwood1956 Rockets are not recoilless rifles. Go look up the difference.
@@obsidianjane4413 I know the difference. Regardless of whether one uses a rocket and one is a vented impulse with a venturi moderated exit, they are the same function. The SMAW is designed to fulfill largely the same general purpose as a recoiless rifle as compared to dedicated anti-tank rockets. Its an upgraded recoilless rifle IN FUNCTION regardless of propellent system.
Any rpg7 sightings?
I would think there would be many.
should be a lot but there are also a LOT of rpg 7 warheads showing up as drone payloads these days
Oh yeah, very common. Some interesting less common variants like Czech and Chinese made.
Yah they’re used. Mainly for lighter vehicles and anti-infantry.
@@baneofbanesDepends on the warhead. The thin ones called "pencils" are anti infantry. The ones you're used to seeing in the conical shape are anti armor, but being invented almost 70 years ago, unless lightly armored aren't great at defeating modern armor, and then you also have the barrel shaped ones that are thermobaric, and the elongated slightly conical ones that are tandem warheads that hamas has been seen producing. Lots and lots of variations.
Smol 🥹
Phone mount for your rocket launcher.
Wait i've heard it's bad idea to fire rocket launchers from indoors because of backblasts but these guys seem to do it all the time. So is that a myth?
No not a myth at all. Some launchers are soft launch so can be fired from enclosed spaces others are just taking the risk.
@@TheArmourersBench Was this one taking the risk?
Yes the SMAW creates significant backblast.
?!? Serbian riffles !? M70 7, 62 mm AB2!
Yes! A rare sighting!
@@TheArmourersBench Jesus, i saw them during training of Ukrainians in UK... How did the Brits got their hands on them? Ex Slovenian, Bosnian...criminals from Serbia?I mean politicians from Serbia. :-)
I thought I saw a few M70AB2s, but they don't have the bulged trunnion.
@@donwyoming1936 Second picture, infront of green SUV.
@@sakota79probably one of the former Yugoslav nations in NATO, so like Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia or Montenegro.
I still remember doing an inspection on one, when I was disassembling the rifle without thinking, bolt tore a good chunk out of my finger 😂
How many potential users read to page 277 of the manual? 😂
Thankfully it is OCR'd haha
So the US reinvented the Carl Gustav?? FFS why? What does it offer that Carl doesn't already?
And how much money have I been bilked out of to pay for this?
RAD
10 years ago Russian kid played Bf3 and was getting shot at with SMAW, now he's adult and have this in real life.
America: BAN asSaUlT WePeNz
Also America: Want some assault weapons? here, have them for free... they only cost us 40k each
Those are eol. It'd cost the us more to demil/dispose than to ship it for free.
If course, they will list those at full price for the consumption by the general public, to impress.