Ukraine is Now 3D-Printing Bombs to Keep Up with Demand
Dropping grenades from consumer drones is just one of the many battlefield innovations that Ukraine pioneered to combat Russian soldiers.
But typical American-made hand grenades have a problem — at 400 grams per grenade (180 grams of explosive) they are a little light on killing power.
An amateur weapons maker based out of Kyiv recently told The Economist, “After one goes off, targeted Russian soldiers often just keep running”.
This light weight is important when soldiers use grenades as intended: thrown by hand at a group of enemies or a bunker. But for dropping explosives from drones, the Ukrainians realized that there must be a better way.
Now, the Ukrainians have threaded the needle between dropping a larger explosive payload and still having a bomb light enough to be carried by a DJI Mavik videography drone.
The weapons maker’s nickname is “Lyosha” and three months ago, he and a group of friends designed an alternative to NATO hand grenades: an 800-gram anti-personnel bomb called the “зайчик”, or “Bunny”.
The Bunny casing is 3D-printed and then packed with C4 explosives, along with pieces of jagged steel to act as shrapnel.
