In early March, press experiences of the battle at Berdychi, 5 miles northwest of Avdiivka, asserted that the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade misplaced three M1A1 Abrams major battle tanks, no less than 4 M2A2 Bradley Combating Automobiles, and two Assault Breacher Automobiles in fight there. These losses signify 10 % of the brigade’s tanks, 5 % of its infantry preventing autos and about one-third of its armored engineer autos.
In late March, impartial visible reporting confirmed 4 destroyed Abrams tanks within the neighborhood of Avdiivka. Make that 12.9 % of Ukraine’s Abrams misplaced in a single battle.
Nevertheless. these experiences additionally mentioned the seize of the rubble of Avdiivka value the Russians “no less than 16,000 useless, most likely tens of 1000’s of wounded and practically 800 armored autos.” Obscure experiences of Ukrainian losses recommend a number of thousand killed, 1000’s extra wounded, and fewer than 100 armored autos misplaced. The Ukrainians claimed the battle successfully halted the advance of the Russian 2nd and forty first Mixed Arms Armies.
The M1A1 Abrams figured prominently, albeit not intimately, in these information accounts of Avdiivka and Berdychi. Such experiences will doubtless characteristic prominently in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s subsequent collection of calls for for extra U.S. and European monetary and materials assist.
However the Ukraine struggle persists in begging the query: are superior weapons like the M1A1 Abrams really power multipliers in Ukraine? Or are they destined to be misplaced and deserted on the battlefield?
Whereas many protection pundits wax eloquently in regards to the technological sophistication of Western fight autos, the Forecast Worldwide Weapons Group as soon as once more maintains know-how alone will not be the important thing to trendy armored warfare. How these weapons are employed tactically is, and at all times will probably be, the important thing issue.
Each the Ukrainian and Russian armies have exhibited a exceptional lack of aptitude, not to mention inclination, to correctly exploit the potential of superior weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. This isn’t shocking, nevertheless, as each armies present a mirror picture of one another by way of trendy tactical sophistication…or, extra exactly, the dearth thereof.
If the Western fight autos in Ukraine, such because the Abrams, are employed with crews and commanders well-grounded in Western armored warfare doctrine, the affect on the battlefield may very well be devastating for Russian forces. But when Ukrainian forces insist on using these Western weapon programs in line with their present Soviet-style doctrine, the outcomes on the battlefield will stay combined at finest, disastrous at worst. Even probably the most subtle weapon on this planet is completely ineffective in untrained (or poorly skilled) arms.
Sadly, because the slaughter in and round Avdiivka and Berdychi replicate, continues to point the Ukrainians have NOT embraced Western armored fight doctrine. Certainly, the Ukrainians are nonetheless working in the identical discredited Russian mode.
Know-how doesn’t win battles. Correctly skilled troopers win battles.