Ukrainian crew – A Ukrainian tank gunner says an Italian B1 Centauro struck a building from a closed position at 11,100 meters—about 6.9 miles—one of the longest indirect tank-gun shots reported in the war. The crew says the approach has become more practical as drones saturat
For the 78th Separate Air Assault Brigade, the shot began in concealment—then landed with pinpoint force nearly seven miles away.
“The furthest shot I had was from a closed position. It was 11 kilometers. At 11,100 meters, I hit a building directly where they were sitting,” the brigade’s gunner told Army TV, a Ukrainian channel run by the defense ministry.
A “closed position” means the crew operates the tank gun the way artillery crews do: firing from a concealed location at a target outside line of sight. The gunner, identified by the call sign “Khilya,” said the strike came from 11,100 meters—about 6.9 miles, or roughly 121 football fields.
The claim was part of a demonstration of the Italian B1 Centauro. an 8×8 vehicle fitted with a NATO-standard 105-mm cannon and lighter armor than a typical main battle tank. In the same clip. the crew described how such distances can translate into real hits when the battlefield prevents direct tank-to-tank movement.
Other Ukrainian gunners have previously described successful strikes at similar ranges. One widely cited account came in 2022, when a Ukrainian T-64BV crew said it hit a Russian tank from 10,600 meters—about 6.5 miles away.
“At the moment, to go tank-to-tank, you have to first get through a large number of FPV drones and all kinds of Molniya drones. That’s difficult. But from closed positions, this fires very accurately,” said the B1 Centauro’s commander, identified by the call sign “Director.”
FPV drones are first-person-view drones, while Molniyas are fixed-wing, one-way attack drones often used on the front lines.
On this particular Centauro, the vehicle was fitted with anti-drone metal cages on its chassis, plus a separate cage and netting that formed a hood behind the tank’s turret.
The platform being shown also reflects how Ukrainian forces have been adapting equipment. The wheeled tank destroyers—mostly produced in the 1990s—were first reported to have been sent to Ukraine in 2023, and they were first seen in publicly released footage in late 2025, operating under the 78th.
The engineering details matter for the kind of shot described. The Italian vehicle can fire its gun upward at an angle of about 15 degrees, while typical self-propelled howitzers or similar artillery can often point theirs about 60 to 70 degrees skyward.
Taken together. the accounts share a single practical thread: when drones make it too dangerous to close the distance. tank guns can be used from hiding—turning armor platforms into something closer to artillery. In the gunner’s words, that change in how battles are fought is what makes an 11,100-meter hit possible.
Ukraine B1 Centauro Italian tank destroyer 78th Separate Air Assault Brigade Army TV closed position FPV drones Molniya drones 105-mm cannon 11 100 meters 10 600 meters Molniya