NLAW anti-tank missiles in Ukraine: Ex-NATO Colonel explains exactly how ‘built in Belfast’ weapon works against Russian tanks

Retired Col Philip Ingram, a former intelligence and planning officer with NATO, was speaking to the News Letter a convoy of tanks and troops some 40 miles long was seen snaking forward towards the capital of Kyiv.

However Mr Ingram says intelligence suggests the convoy may now be stuck because the front of it has been destroyed. If so, he says it is feasible that bazookas built in Belfast may be responsible.

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In January, a consignment of 2,000 Next-generation Light Anti-tank Weapons (NLAWs), developed by the UK and Sweden, were dispatched to Ukraine. A small number of British troops travelled to train the Ukrainian armed forces in operating them. It is understood that missiles are constructed for Thales in their Northern Ireland facilities. The 12.5kg NLAW is reportedly quick and easy to master, and gives one soldier the ability to take out a battle tank up to 800m away.

Mr Ingram, whose job at NATO was to ‘game out’ just the type of Russian aggression now seen in Ukraine, said there were “no reports” of the convoy moving on Wednesday.

“Therefore if it is static something is stopping it maneuvering forward,” he told the News Letter. “You don’t put a convoy down a route unless it has something to do. And you certainly don’t have vehicles backed up against each other the way you have seen in some of the pictures.

“I have seen reports this morning on one of the routes ... at the front end of a convoy... lots of destroyed Russian armoured vehicles. That then provides a block and everything stacks up behind it.”

Something is “fixing” the front of the convoy and its ability to manoeuvre, he says.

“It is possible vehicles at the front may have been destroyed although it cannot be certain.” There are too many images circulating that cannot be geospatially located to draw definite conclusions, he adds.

However if it has halted because vehicles at the front have been destroyed, it is perfectly feasible that weapons built in Belfast may be responsible. “Oh, 100%” he affirms.

He cites video footage to support his conclusion. “There was one where there was a Ukrainian anti-tank team which fired an NLAW at a Russian tank and destroyed it, and the Ukrainian operator turned and said: ‘NLAW - God Save the Queem!’

So they are proving very popular and very effective.”

The weapon can either be fired directly at a tank or just over the top where the armour is weakest. The missile can discharge an armour penetrating, superheated copper cone down into the tank as it passes overhead. This melts through the armour, “splattering” around the inside and setting off any explosives. The shockwave and shrapnel will kill any crew, he adds.

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