The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle has hardly been an international sales success, thanks to poor hydrogen infrastructure, expense, and polarizing design, but it proved successful to Ukrainian forces which scavenged parts from the hydrogen car to create the world’s smallest hydrogen bomb.
Keep in mind, this was not a small thermonuclear device, sometimes colloquially called a “hydrogen bomb.” No fissile material was hurt in the making of this explosive, just an already wrecked Mirari and a pizza delivery bot. According to reports from pro-Ukraine Euromaidan Press Russian forces had failed to take the town of Vovchansk and retreated to an aggregate plant just north of the river.
Given the circumstances of the battle of Vovchansk and the disruption of operations by Russian electronic warfare systems, the Ukrainians had to adopt a different approach. They decided to use spare parts from wrecked electric vehicles to create an innovative bomb. This bomb was built using a fully loaded hydrogen fuel cell from a wrecked Toyota Mirai car and weighed over two hundred kilograms. It was capable of inflicting severe damage on Russian defenses, comparable to an aerial bomb.
The hydrogen composition of the bomb enabled it to generate powerful blast waves, fireballs, debris, and mushroom clouds. Since drones were compromised by electronic warfare and the bomb was too heavy for aerial drone delivery, the Ukrainians opted to use a remotely operated ground drone to transport the bomb to the Russian positions.
The ground drone carrying the bomb was sent over a narrow, intact section of a partially destroyed bridge along Metalista Street, just wide enough for the drone to traverse.
You can see the full extent of the little drone’s journey in this Twitter post from the Ukrainian resistance.
Obviously Toyota isn’t going to release a hydrogen-powered car with a tank that can just explode when a Mirai driver inevitably crashes their car. The high-pressure hydrogen tank in the back of a Mirai is practically impenetrable. Unless, like the Ukrainians, you line it on all sides with plastic explosives and wheel it right into a Russian camp.
