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Ukraine’s latest weapons in its war with Russia: 3D-printed bombs
They are cheap – and surprisingly effective.
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Improvised munitions are not a direct replacement for the factory-made sort.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
The Economist
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Hand grenades are designed to be thrown, so they are light. But when they are dropped from drones, this can be a drawback. With a typical weight of just 300g, grenades are short on “killing power”, says a man nicknamed “Lyosha”, who is an amateur weapons maker based in Kyiv. After one goes off, he says, targeted Russian soldiers “often just keep running”.
Three months ago Lyosha and a group of friends, working in their homes, designed an alternative: an 800g anti-personnel bomb called the “Zaychyk”, or “Rabbit”. The group uses 3D printing to produce the bomb’s casing, before sending it to be filled with C4, an explosive, and pieces of steel shrapnel. In tests, Lyosha says, this shrapnel cuts into wooden planks “like butter”.
