Remember when Ukrainian troops revealed they were being supplied with an interesting weapon by the United States?

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been supplied with a lot of powerful U.S. weapons since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of their country back in 2022, but every so often the world gets to see some of the more mundane arms being sent to Kyiv.

Equipment light night-vision goggles, cold weather gear, medical supplies, and a lot of other unit-level items needed to fight day-to-day have been given to Kyiv in large quantities. One important weapon in this area was spotted in Ukraine in late 2023.

One of the biggest issues that have faced the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been getting past the layers of defense Russian forces set up along the most vulnerable areas of the frontlines of the conflict. But Kyiv has provided a great solution. 

Ukrainian forces appeared to have been supplied with the M1A3 Bangalore torpedos of images that circulated Telegram in November and December 2023,  which were published by the Ukrainian military website Militarnyi. But what is this weapon and how was it helping Ukraine?

Photo Credit: Telegram @NMFTE

The Bangalore torpedo is a piece of military technology that is over a century old and was invented by Britain just before the outbreak of the First World War according to Military Factory. More importantly, it was developed with one purpose in mind.

The British Army wanted a weapon that could be used by its combat engineers to knock out unexploded ordinance and clear obstacles in battle, something the Bangalore turned out to be very good at doing when it was first put to use. 

First deployed during the Boer War to combat the many traps used by South Africa’s Dutch settlers against the British, the Bangalore torpedo was eventually formally adopted into the British Army in 1914 and was used in both World Wars. 

By Unnamed War Correspondent - Battle of Colenso

The fundamentals behind how the Bangalore torpedo works are simple to understand. It consists of sections of long metal pipe with each section housing explosive charges that can be used to denote and clear mines or blast away barbed wire and natural undergrowth. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Miguel Tremblay - Own work

More importantly, combat engineers can detonate a Bangalore torpedo at a distance so they don’t need to put their lives at risk unless they are using the system during combat to destroy any defensive works holding up the advance. 

The American M1A3 Bangalore torpedo is a version of the weapon, and the U.S. kits are composed of ten tube assemblies with ten connector sleeves that can be arranged together to deliver an effective explosion. 

Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Defense By Spc. Jonnie Riley

The primary use of the American Bangalore is to clear paths through wire obstacles and heavy undergrowth. It has the ability to clear a three to four-yard wide path through an area easily according to the United States Army Field Manual via Public Intelligence. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Photo: Corporal Rob Kane/MOD, OGL 3

Bangalore torpedoes are also extremely effective at clearing mines, fields and Doctrine Supplemental material from the U.S. Army base Fort Moore’s website noted that the M1A3 can clear a one-by-fifteen-meter section of a minefield. 

It’s in the Bangalore torpedo's mine-clearing and defensive obstacle-busting roles that Ukrainian forces have likely found the M1A3 useful since Russia has built the most extensive defenses since World War II according to the Center of Strategic and International Studies. 

“In advance of Ukraine’s offensive, Russia built the most extensive defensive works in Europe since World War II, with expansive fortifications in eastern and southern Ukraine,” wrote analysts Seth G. Jones, Riley McCabe, and Alexander Palmer on October 12th. 

“These defenses consist of a network of trenches, anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, razor wire, earthen berms, and dragon’s teeth,” the analysts continued, adding that the slow pace of Ukraine's offensive could be attributed to Russia’s defense.  

We now know that Ukraine's 2023 summer counter-offensive failed but that doesn't mean that Kyiv's American-supplied Bangalore torpedos didn't help Ukrainian units across the frontlines as they tried to push the Russian army out of their territory.

The analysts also noted that Ukraine was now the most heavily mined region in the world, something former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov made clear in August 2023 when speaking with The Guardian about the situation. 

“Today, Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world. Hundreds of kilometers of minefields, millions of explosive devices, in some parts of the frontline up to five mines per square meter,” Reznikov explained to The Guardian's Daniel Boffey. 

Reznikov went on to say that Russian minefields were “ a serious obstacle” for Ukrainian  troops, but added that they were “not insurmountable.” What Ukraine needed at the time was more sappers and more modern mine-clearing equipment. 

“At this stage of our de-occupation campaign we critically need more mine clearance equipment, from minesweeping trawls to Bangalore torpedoes,” Reznikov said at the time, which is a request that seems to have been granted following the latest photo evidence.