The Ukrainian military released detailed footage of a Russian tank being hit by a round with cluster submunitions.

Telegram channel Hnyla Chereshnia published the footage of the combat use.

Artillerymen of the Defense Forces hit a Russian tank located 8 kilometers from the combat line with a 155-mm BONUS artillery round.

Detected by the Shark reconnaissance drone, the Russian tank received two hits on the poorly protected turret roof with two armor-piercing submunitions.

The video shows the moment of its unfolding in the air, followed by the instant targeting of the cluster elements and their detonation. Immediately afterward, the Russian tank catches fire.

The site of the destruction of the Russian T-90M tank was geolocated in the Zaporizhzhia region, namely near the village of Robotyne (here), 8 km from the front line. The Russian tank was presumably firing from behind closed lines at such a distance.

BONUS

BONUS is a French-Swedish high-precision cluster munition jointly developed by Nexter and Bofors specifically for destroying armored vehicles.

The 155mm round carries two autonomous bomblets that locate the target using dual-band passive infrared sensors and a laser range finder.

Both cluster munitions are equipped with a warhead in the form of a high-explosive core, which, upon detonation, penetrates armor up to 130 mm thick from the upper hemisphere, which is currently the least protected area of most combat vehicles in the world.

To use the BONUS round, the gun crew must program the submunition release time into its onboard computer. Therefore, artillerymen must accurately calculate the distance to the target and, accordingly, interact with the aerial reconnaissance unit.

Before firing, the fuze is programmed for a pre-calculated firing time. After the fuze is fired at the preset time, it is triggered, initiating a burst charge that ejects containers of submunitions (self-targeting warheads) from the shell body at an altitude of 800 to 2,200 meters above the target area.

The principle of operation of the munition is as follows:

1. BONUS is fired similarly to conventional artillery ammunition;
2. the round flies in the air along a normal ballistic trajectory;
3. on a given trajectory section, a special mechanism separates combat elements at an altitude of 800-2000 meters;
4. individual combat elements open the stabilizers, slowing down their rotation and searching for a target;
5. once the target is detected, the submunition calculates the aiming point and detonates to form a warhead.

The BONUS is compatible with most existing 155mm artillery guns. Its maximum range is 35 kilometers when fired from guns with a 52-caliber barrel (L52).