How the Sagger Drill Helps Keep Stryker Vehicles Alive in Ukraine
Key Highlights :
When Egyptian forces used the Soviet-made Sagger anti-tank missile to devastating effect on the Israelis during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the U.S. Army scrambled to develop a countermeasure. Fast-forward 50 years later, and the Ukrainian armed forces are still using the Sagger drill to defeat Russia’s heavier, farther-flying anti-tank guided missiles. The crews of Ukraine’s American-made Stryker wheeled fighting vehicles are among the more successful in evading Russian ATGMs, thanks to the classic Sagger drill.
The Sagger drill is a missile-evasion technique that involves staying alert for the telltale flash of a missile firing, then maneuvering in an “erratic and zigzag path” and getting under cover as fast as possible. The goal is to move faster, and more randomly, than a missile-operator can react to. This guidance method lends itself to interruption, evasion or both.
The 18-ton, 11-person Stryker is an ideal vehicle for the Sagger drill, thanks to its 350-horsepower diesel engine and ability to accelerate to 60 miles per hour on good terrain. The two-man crew scans through their separate infrared optics—the driver’s Leonardo-made Driver’s Vision Enhancer and the commander’s camera-equipped Kongsberg Protector remote gun turret—for the hot white flash of a missile launching from potentially miles away.
When a missile is detected, the driver immediately throws the vehicle into evasive action. The Stryker’s maneuverability and speed make it possible to jink and foil the missile’s guidance. “The vehicle saves us,” one Stryker driver said in an official video.
The Sagger drill may not always work against the latest Russian anti-tank missiles in Ukraine, but it works often enough. Ukraine’s independent air-assault forces have received nearly 200 Strykers from the United States and, despite deploying them to the vanguard of their four-month-old counteroffensive, have lost just three of them that outside analysts can confirm. Something is keeping those Strkyers in action. Well-executed Sagger drills might be one of the main things protecting the speedy wheeled vehicles from Russian missiles.
The Sagger drill is a testament to the resilience of the U.S. Army’s tactics, even decades after they were first developed. The Stryker’s maneuverability, speed, and two-man crew make it an ideal vehicle for the classic Sagger drill, and its effectiveness in Ukraine proves that the Sagger drill still works at times.
