Armor Experts Breakdown Video Of Ukrainian M2 Bradley Mauling Russian T-90M TankThe War Zone by Howard Altman| Jan 18, 2024
Veteran armor experts explain the viral video showing Russia’s top tank in Ukraine getting torn-up by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. new viral video shows the crew of a Russian T-90M Breakthrough tank getting a first-hand lesson in the devastating firepower of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s Bushmaster M242 25mm automatic cannon. The War Zone reached out to highly-experienced armor experts to explain exactly what we are seeing in the intense combat footage and how the Bradley was able to take on Russia's most capable frontline tank.
You can read all about the Bradley and what it brings to the fight in Ukraine in this past feature of ours.
Produced by Ukraine’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which trained on the Bradley in Germany before putting the type to use on the battlefield, the drone-shot video shows Russia's most advanced frontline tank being rapidly hit with 25mm rounds at relatively close range. The video cuts to another view of the engagement, near the town of Stepovoy in Donetsk Oblast, which shows a closer look at the tank being pummeled.
A second video that appears to be from the same engagement shows the tank turret spinning out of control as it approaches a tree before slamming into it. Crew members are seen fleeing before the tank is finished off by a first person view (FPV) kamikaze drone.
An armor expert with direct knowledge of the Bradley and a Bradley master gunner told us that the videos highlight both the capabilities of the weapon and the skill of its crew.
“The Bradley Fighting Vehicle is very survivable, very maneuverable,” said the armor expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It looks like this crew has had a lot of training as well as experience and is very comfortable with the Bradley and able to quickly make decisions under extreme stress when confronting a tank knowing that they're going to have to engage it. And it looks like this crew knew that they could disable the T-90 tank as its rear end was shown to them.”
Tanks are traditionally far more heavily armored at their front than their rear.
It was a particularly impressive engagement, said the armor expert, considering that the T-90M has a 125mm main gun compared to the Bradley’s 25mm Bushmaster and much thicker armor than than the Bradley, especially in the front.
The video also displays the rapid-fire value of the Bushmaster chain gun, which can spew 200 rounds per minute. It can fire two different types of ammo, fed from boxes via chutes into the autoloader.
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