LUGANSK, March 19. /TASS/. Servicemen operating ZU-23 antiaircraft guns in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) are equipping the guns with thermal imaging sights that automatically calculate drone trajectories and display images on a tablet, the commander of an anti-aircraft artillery platoon of the 164th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of Battlegroup West, call sign "Turan," told TASS.
"We have a thermal imaging sight installed for nighttime operations with a display on a tablet, so the shooter doesn’t have to look at it with his eyes. He has a tablet in front of him, and everything is there. The gunner/rangefinder adjusts the settings depending on the target’s distance. And this sight engages automatically. The target goes in the crosshairs, and the barrel is already pointing where we need it, that is, it calculates the trajectory," he said.
The officer explained that the thermal imaging sight can detect drones at altitudes of up to 1,000 meters, even at night. However, the optimal distance for target engagement is 500-700 meters. Turan noted that thanks to the high-explosive fragmentation charge, comparable in power to an F-1 grenade, the target is destroyed even by a nearby shell explosion.