The Economist - USA (2022-03-12)

68 Science & technology TheEconomistMarch12th 2022

cup  to  the  end  of  its  barrel.  Then  pull  the

pin from a conventional hand grenade and

tuck it inside the cup, so that the cup’s wall

holds  the  grenade’s  handle  in  place.  Last,

load  the  gun  with  a  cartridge  from  which

the pellets have been removed.

When you pull the trigger, the blast pro­

pels  both  grenade  and  cup  into  the  air,

ejecting the grenade from the cup. That re­

leases  the  handle  and  starts  the  count­

down.  Though  such  contraptions  are  not

exactly safe to fire, they can perform well,

for they have a range of about the length of

a  football  pitch.  According  to  Nic  Jenzen­

Jones, boss of Armament Research Servic­

es, a consultancy in Perth, Australia, their

use in Ukraine is spreading quickly.

As  for  the  profusion  of  Molotov  cock­

tails,  Ukrainian  mixologists  are  testing  a

variety of recipes and designs. Some have a

divider  separating  two  stages,  one  filled

with  kerosene  and  the  other  with  home­

made napalm. And Molotovs are not mere­

ly  hand­thrown  weapons.  One  Ukrainian

army  colonel  in  Kyiv,  who  requested  an­

onymity,  has  a  photograph  of  a  Molotov­

launching crossbow, fashioned from scrap

steel and a bed spring.

With  or  without  such  improvised

launchers,  Molotovs  can  be  extremely  ef­

fective in urban combat. In particular, they

make  invaders  chary  of  passing  within  a

bottle’s throw of upstairs windows. That is

both a constraint on movement and a call

on attention that might make a soldier vul­

nerable  to  attack  from  another  direction.

And makeshift arms which are the fruit of

greater technical expertise than that need­

ed to fill a bottle with liquid are also crop­

ping up in Ukraine. These “craft­produced

weapons”, as experts call them, are mostly

modifications  of  things  that  go  boom.  In

Mr  Jenzen­Jones’s  view  two,  in  particular,

stand out in the fighting in Ukraine.

Battle stations

One  is  a  modification  of  Russian­made

rpg­7s. These are rugged and inexpensive

shoulder­fired  launchers  of  unguided

rocket­propelled  grenades.  But  the  gre­

nades’ warheads are designed to pierce ar­

mour, so are ill suited to attacking infantry.

To  remedy  this,  irregular  forces  on  both

sides  of  the  conflict  in  eastern  Ukraine,

which  began  in  2014  and  thus  long­pre­

dates the recent Russian invasion, have re­

configured  rpg­7s  to  fire  82mm  mortar

rounds with a fragmentation warhead.

The other concoctions noted by Mr Jen­

zen­Jones  are  called  Khattabka,  after  Ibn

al­Khattab,  a  Saudi  jihadist  who  fought  in

Afghanistan,  Chechnya,  Dagestan  and  Ta­

jikistan. These are hand grenades adapted

from  rounds  intended  for  a  conventional

grenade  launcher.  They  are  made  by  re­

moving  the  impact  fuse  and  replacing  it

with a pin­operated countdown fuse of the

sort employed in a conventional hand gre­

nade. Since,inthefogofwar,itisnotun­

known forunitstobeinpossessionoffus­

es withoutconventionalhandgrenadesto

fit them to,thatisa usefulinnovation.

Moreover,handgrenades,whethercon­

ventionalorimprovised,neednolongerbe

thrown byhand.Smallcommercialdrones

such as theAutelEvoII,a popularmodelof

quadcopter,canalsobeemployedforthe

task.  Thesedronescanberiggedeitherto

drop a grenadeoncommandortoflytothe

target anddetonatethepayloadonarrival.

Anti­tankhandgrenades,suchasthe

Soviet­erarkg­3,arebeingmodified for

usewithdronesaswell.Suchmunitions

havedrogueparachutesthatcausethem,

after beingthrown, to fall moreor less

straightdownontopofa tank,wherethe

armour is thinnest. These parachutes,

however,makethemhardto dropaccu­

rately from adrone, soan arms maker

called Ukroboronprom is removing the

’chutesandaddingtailfins,instead.

Droneshaveotheruses,too.Ukraine’s

defenceministryhasbeenurgingpeople

toflythemto spotRussianforces.They

constantlyreporttheirgpsco­ordinates,

sopinpointing thewhereaboutsofwhat

theyseeiseasy.StoresinKyivhavereport­

edlyrunoutofsupplies,andvolunteers

aretryingtobringmoreinfromabroad.

Ifthewargrinds onandfewership­

mentsofconventionalarmsandammuni­

tionreachbesiegedcities,theroleofim­

proviseddefenceswillsurelygrow.That

hashappenedinotherwars—forexample,

inSyria, where improvisedartillery has

evolved fromslingshots employing sili­

conetubesaselasticto“hellcannons”that

launchgascylinderspackedwithexplo­

sivesandshrapnel.Warisa dirtybusiness.

Butnecessityisthemotherofinvention.n

Communicationsina warzone

Skywavesandsatellites

I

ncommunistEasternEuropeashort­

waveradiowasa vitalpieceofequipment

foranyonewantingtostayaheadofthe

censors.StationssuchasthebbcWorld

Service,RadioFree EuropeandVoiceof

America broadcast news, entertainment

androck­and­rollacrosstheIronCurtain.

Afterthe cold war ended, shortwave

radiosgavewaytotelevisionandtheinter­

net,andthebroadcastswerewounddown.

ButonMarch3rd,intheaftermathofRus­

sia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bbc an­

nouncedtheirreturn.TheWorldService

has begunnightly newsbroadcasts into

UkraineandpartsofRussia(seemap).

Radioisanearly­20th­centurytechnol­

ogy.Butthebbchopesitcanstillbeuseful

intheinternetagebecauseitishardto

stop.Shortwavesignalsbounceofftheion­

osphere,a layerofchargedparticleshigh

in the atmosphere. The resulting “sky­

wave”travelsforthousandsofkilometres,

meaning broadcasterscan sit safely be­

yondthereachofcensors,secretpolice­

men—andinvadingarmies.AndinUkrai­

niancitieslikeMariupol,wheredaysof

shellinghavelefttheplacewithoutelec­

tricity,battery­poweredradios stillwork

whentheinternetandtelevisiondonot.

Ukraine’sgovernmentdoesrelyonthe

internetwhereitcan,though,tofightthe

public­relationswarandtokeepcommu­

nicationwiththeoutsideworldalive.In

thepastfewdays,forexample,Volodymyr

Zelensky, the president, has addressed

America’sCongress,theEuropeanParlia­

mentandBritain’sHouseofCommonsvia

a videolink.

WithRussiantroopsmassingnearKyiv,

ground­basedinternetlinksareunlikelyto

last.But,onFebruary28th,MykhailoFedo­

rov, Ukraine’s vice­prime minister,

thankedElonMusk,anAmerican entre­

preneur,fora deliveryof“Starlink”satel­

lite­internet dishes. These can provide

high­speed,low­latencyaccesstothein­

ternetviaa networkoflow­flyingsatellites

runbySpaceX,oneofMrMusk’scompa­

nies.A fewdayslaterMrMusksaidSpaceX

hadmodifiedthedishes’softwaretoallow

them tobe poweredby acar’scigarette

lighter. That could prove useful if and

whenthesiegeofKyivbeginsinearnest. n

TechnologiesoldandnewmayhelpkeepUkrainiansintouchwiththeworld

Kyiv

Mariupol

Kherson

Odessa

Dnipro

Lviv Kharkiv

BlackSea

Crimea

UKRAINE

BELARUS

POLAND

HUNGARY

SLOVAKIA

ROMANIA

BULGARIA

SERBIA

MOLDOVA

RUSSIA

250 km

Reach of BBC Ukraine shortwave service*

Source:BBC *Fourhoursa day since March 4th 222

Very good service Good service