Jack Watling

Sending uranium ammo to Ukraine isn’t an escalation

(Photo: Getty)

It didn’t take long for the Kremlin to exploit the news that Britain will be supplying depleted uranium armour-piercing anti-tank ammo to Ukraine. On Tuesday, Putin said that ‘Russia will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component.’ While on Wednesday, Russia’s Ambassador to the US said that the West had ‘irrevocably decided to bring humanity to a dangerous line, beyond which a nuclear Armageddon is looming ever more distinctly.’ 

Both remarks are part of a long-standing Russian attempt to suggest that the Ukraine conflict might lead to nuclear escalation. The aim is to disrupt international support for Ukraine. The idea that the Kremlin will actually respond to the UK sending depleted uranium armour piercing rounds to Ukraine is highly unlikely though. 

It’s worth making clear why the UK is sending depleted uranium ammo to Ukraine in the first place. The issue, at its heart, is that piercing tank armour is very difficult. The armour is formed from specially layered hardened steels, and tanks are designed to only show angled surfaces to their adversaries, increasing the chance that an attack will glance off. In addition, tanks often have what is called ‘reactive armour’ plates on their outside, which blow outwards after impact, sending energy away from rather than towards the tank. They also have spall lines on the inside which catch fragments from shockwaves passing through the armour plates. Moreover, because tanks have cannons and can see and shoot targets 2 km away, attackers want to make sure that if they hit a tank, they break through its armour. 

There are three basic types of anti-armour projectile that the UK will have considered sending to Ukraine. First there are High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) munitions, which use a shaped charge to drive a metal jet through a tank’s armour.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in