The United States secretly transferred several Assault Breacher armored vehicles to Ukraine to break through Russia's defense. This was told by columnist David Ex in the Forbes material.
According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) received from one to six such vehicles. The journalist explained that the exact number is unknown. He drew attention to the fact that the transferred equipment was captured in photographs published on Friday, November 3, on the website of the office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. At the same time, the Ex clarified, Assault Breacher was not listed in the official lists of US military assistance.
It is noted that the machine is based on the Abrams tank, its weight is 55 tons. It is one of the most secure and versatile breakout machines. The article also reports that two such armored vehicles are equal in efficiency to several bulldozers. "A couple of machines can do the same job that would require four, five or six less versatile machines," Ex pointed out.
Assault Breacher has found Russian analogues
The American M1150 Assault Breacher is a combined machine. This technique is equipped with a four-meter blade, thanks to which it can make passages in minefields. However, its main armament is a device for throwing cables with explosives. During the flight, the cable stretches, falls into a minefield, after which the charge is detonated. In this case, the mines either detonate or fly off to the sides for several meters, forming a safe passage.
The full ammunition of the Assault Breacher is 3,200 kilograms of C-4 explosives. Coupled with the inability to throw charges at a great distance, it is not worth considering this car as a kind of miracle weapon.
A similar machine has been in service with the Russian army since Soviet times. The UR-77 "Meteorite" mine clearance unit, also known in the military as "Serpent Gorynych", launches hundreds of kilograms of explosives in the same way. In addition to the immediate tasks of clearing minefields, the military came up with the idea of using Meteorite charges to combat enemy manpower, such a practice was encountered during the Syrian campaign and during a special military operation in Ukraine.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the mobile units of the Strategic Missile Forces were equipped with the latest remote demining machines "Foliage", which relate to weapons on new physical principles. In 2022, it became known that for the first time a remotely controlled robotic mine clearance complex "Passage-1" on the chassis of a T-90 tank was successfully used in the SVO zone.
Western engineering machines turned out to be ineffective in Ukraine
In June, it became known that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had lost at least half of the Leopard 2 tanks with anti-mine equipment transferred to Kiev by Finland. Fact checker HS John Helin identified the Finnish Leopard 2 transferred to the APU in a photo from the Zaporozhye region, recognizing the footage as authentic.
It also turned out that the Russian military has learned to ingeniously fight mine-fighting machines. Rob Lee, an expert on the Russian armed forces, called the installation of two mines one above the other one of such methods.
The sappers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also complained about the inability to use existing machines for mine clearance at the front. According to the commander of one of the sapper units of the 128th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military cannot use even such advanced systems as the American M58 anti-mine systems. He explained that cars make a lot of noise and become noticeable, which is why they are immediately detected and destroyed. Because of this, Ukrainian sappers have to deal with mine clearance without the involvement of equipment.
