While many Leopard 2s are being repaired, the Ukrainians are defending the front in the east with Bradley tanks. Several strengths pay off against the Russian army.
Avdiivka – Not everything is going well for Kiev in the Ukraine war. While a number of the Leopard 2 tanks delivered are in the Baltics for repairs – and therefore far away from the front – the Russians have apparently identified a weak point in the M1 Abrams.
Against Vladimir Putin's army: Ukrainians defend front in the east with Bradleys
On the other hand, what pays off after the bitter summer losses are the American Bradleys. With the armored personnel carriers, the Ukrainians have been successfully defending the front sections near Avdiivka and Kupyansk in the east of the battered country for weeks, despite fierce Russian attacks. No matter what they try, Moscow autocrat Vladimir Putin's invasion troops can't get through here.
With a view to the completely destroyed Avdiivka in Donbass, the much-quoted military expert Gustav Gressel confirmed that European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) The Ukrainian army recently reported “significant defensive successes” in ZDF’s “heute journal”. A number of videos on X (formerly Twitter) also document which tanks are in focus: the Bradleys. And also because the Ukrainians are repurposing them.
Russian soldiers are “afraid” to launch offensive operations “if they know that a Bradley will come against them,” a Ukrainian soldier named Kach said, according to the American news magazine Newsweek. Accordingly, he is one of the commanders of the 47th mechanized brigade, which holds the ruins of the former industrial city of Avdiivka against non-stop attacks by Kremlin troops.
Avdiivka in Donbass: Ukrainian army holds city with Bradley infantry fighting vehicles
According to Western estimates, thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in these few square kilometers alone since mid-October. Their number is now said to be five figures – in Avdiivka alone. Also because there is apparently no way around the Bradleys. Several strengths pay off. The Bradley is fast, “very maneuverable” and protects its soldiers with its heavy armor, said Kach. And the tank crew could strike with the “powerful machine gun”.
As the reports and videos illustrate, the Ukrainian soldiers use the actual armored personnel carrier like a battle tank. You go into direct combat against enemy vehicles and attack them. The vehicle is actually intended more for unloading infantry in the combat area.
In conversation with Newsweek Daniel Rice, former special advisor to Valery Zalushnyj (Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine), attested that the Bradley had a “long-standing reputation as a superior infantry fighting vehicle”. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently shared a video of a Bradley fighting on X (see below). “There is no place for occupiers on Ukrainian soil! The Bradley IFV helps the enemy understand it as quickly as possible,” the posting read along with the hashtag #Awdiivka.
The Ukrainians' Bradley infantry fighting vehicle: speed and ammunition as strengths
The images impressively documented a key strength – and an advantage over the mostly outdated Russian material. We are talking about the 25 mm M242 “Bushmaster” machine cannon. There is the enormous range of up to 2000 meters with a rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute. The Russians don't have anything comparable in this caliber. The crew can use the autocannon to attack even fortified positions (see tweet at the top of the article). And thanks to the speed of a maximum of 60 km/h, you can quickly retreat again. For comparison: a German Marder armored personnel carrier can reach 45 km/h off-road.
Thanks to its tracer ammunition, the M242 “Bushmaster” is also suitable for marking enemy targets for your own artillery. According to the principle “follow the beam of light”. The Americans used this tactic in the Second World War with their Sherman tanks.
Against Russian troops: Ukrainians have already lost a number of Bradley tanks
As another video on X shows the destruction of an entire Russian tank column within minutes (!), the Ukrainians are successfully copying the same tactics. At the beginning of January, however, it was unclear how many copies of the M2 Bradley the Ukrainian armed forces still had. Loud New York Times (NYT) The same 47th Assault Brigade lost a total of 25 tanks in just one attack in a minefield on June 8 near Mala Tokmachka (Zaporizhia region) – 16 of which are said to have been Bradleys.
Loud Newsweek The USA sent 186 of the armored personnel carriers, of which between 100 and 120 were sent into direct combat. As Oryx, an open source research group, reported in the fall, 34 Bradleys had been abandoned, damaged or destroyed by mid-July. Updated figures were not communicated. Meanwhile, the crews continue to fight effectively in their armored personnel carriers against the Moscow ruler's invading army. (pm)
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