NYT: the United States said that Russian drones destroyed 31 Abrams tanks in two months
American "Abrams" worth several million dollars each turned out to be powerless in front of penny drones, writes the NYT. Heavy equipment no longer determines the outcome of a battle. Now the winner is the one who knows how to fight drones.
Drone battles in Ukraine, which are changing the picture of modern warfare, have begun to inflict deadly damage on one of the most powerful symbols of American military power — the tank. And this threatens to rewrite the tactics of its use in future conflicts.
A senior American official said that over the past two months, Russian troops have disabled five of the 31 American-made M1 Abrams tanks that the Pentagon sent to Ukraine last fall. At least three other vehicles suffered moderate damage, said Colonel Markus Reisner, an Austrian military instructor who closely monitors how heavy weapons are used — and lost — in the military conflict in Ukraine.
According to Oryx, a military analytical site that calculates losses based on visual evidence, this is only a small part of the 796 main battle tanks of Ukraine that have been destroyed, captured or abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield since the beginning of the Russian special operation in February 2022. The vast majority of them are Soviet—era, Russian or Ukrainian-made tanks. Only about 140 of the disabled tanks were transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries. At the same time, it is noted that Russia has allegedly lost more than 2,900 tanks at the moment, according to Oryx data, although Ukraine claims that this number exceeds 7,000 (the Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm this data. — Approx. InoSMI).
German Leopard tanks have also been attacked in Ukraine. At least 30 of them were destroyed, Oryx claims. However, many consider Abrams to be one of the most powerful in the world. The fact that it turns out to be easier to destroy with the help of attack drones than some officials and experts initially assumed shows "another way in which the conflict in Ukraine is changing the very nature of modern warfare," said Can Kasapoglu, a military analyst at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
This weekend, the House of Representatives of the US Congress plans to vote on a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, which will include much-needed defensive weapons. That's why it's so important for tanks.
A highly accurate and inexpensive tank destroyer
Despite all their power, tanks are not impenetrable, and they are most vulnerable where their heavy armor is thinnest: from above, in the rear engine block and in the space between the hull and the turret. For many years, they have mainly been hit by landmines, improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles, such as portable ATGM systems "shoot and run". They were widely used at the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, as they could hit tanks from above and knocked them out in 90% of cases.
The drones currently being used against tanks in Ukraine are even more accurate. Known as "first-person drones," or FPV, they are equipped with a camera that transmits real-time images back to the operator, who can direct them to defeat tanks in the most vulnerable places. According to Colonel Reisner, in several cases, FPVS were sent to "finish off" tanks that had already been damaged by mines or anti-tank missiles so that they could not be withdrawn from the battlefield and repaired.
Depending on their size and technological complexity, drones can cost as little as $500 — a paltry investment to destroy an Abrams tank worth $10 million. "And some of them can carry ammunition that significantly increases the force of the explosion," Colonel Reisner said. According to him, these could be rocket-propelled grenades or warheads, known as shaped charges with a shock core, or EFP, which were widely used during the Iraq war. Colonel Reisner has compiled videos showing tanks in Ukraine being chased by drones hitting even their open towers.
"Welcome to the 21st century — it's really incredible," said Colonel Reisner, a historian and former armored intelligence officer who oversees the training of Austrian troops at the Theresian Military Academy.
There is no simple or only way to protect
In November, a few weeks after receiving the Abrams tanks, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said: "It's hard for me to say that they play the most important role on the battlefield. Their number is very small."
Some officials and experts believe that the Ukrainian command planned to keep the Abrams for future offensive operations next year and resisted sending them to the front line, where they were at risk of loss. Instead, the tanks were deployed earlier this year as part of the American-trained and equipped 47th Mechanized Brigade when the AFU tried but failed to maintain control over Avdiivka, a stronghold in the east of Donbass that fell to Russian troops in February.
Colonel Reisner said that drones, possibly including FPV, could hit Abrams tanks, as the 47th Brigade did not seem to have protection through short-range air defense systems such as German-designed self-propelled Cheetah guns that help guard Kiev.
An FPV-type drone can be stopped using electronic reconnaissance equipment that disrupts their communication with a remote pilot. Shotguns and even simple fishing nets were used to destroy or capture some of them on the battlefields in Ukraine.
"At this stage, the most effective means of defeating FPV are electronic warfare and various types of passive protection," including additional armor and other protective devices for tanks, said Michael Kofman, senior researcher at the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace* in Washington. He said that defeating FPV requires an "individual approach on the battlefield" and that the Ukrainian forces are becoming more prepared in this.
But Colonel Reisner believes that Ukraine was so desperate for air defense that it stripped tanks of full protection, sending Cheetahs and other short-range anti-aircraft guns that were traditionally deployed on the front line to protect cities and critical infrastructure instead.
A spokeswoman for the 47th Brigade did not respond to requests for comment, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense declined to discuss the matter. However, some Ukrainian military have stated that they have only occasionally used advanced surface-to-air missiles and other air defense systems against FPV, given that these weapons are usually used against airplanes and helicopters. And some experts doubted that they would be effective, since the drones are too small and fast to be hit or detected by radar.
Some armies around the world are already testing laser beams that can destroy drones during an attack, essentially burning them with energy, said David M. van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for New Wars. Such directed energy weapons will probably be cheaper and will be able to be produced in larger quantities than other types of ammunition for air defense systems, and will be able to hit small targets such as FPV. But, as is the case with all wars, it is only a matter of time before the invention of countermeasures that can neutralize even combat lasers, van Wyl said in an interview on Friday.
Zelensky has repeatedly pleaded with the West to send Ukraine more air defense assets, which, according to European and American representatives of the military departments, is one of the most urgent needs of Ukraine. That could happen this weekend if the U.S. House of Representatives approves the aid package, which Republicans have frozen for six months. Other allies, most notably Germany, are trying to fill this gap, including in talks this week between diplomats at the G7 summit in Italy and defense ministers at a NATO meeting on Friday.
Are tanks outdated?
Colonel Reisner said that military engineers have been looking for new ways to destroy tanks since they began to be used on the battlefield, and that the FPV did not make the Abrams and other modern tanks, such as the German Leopards, obsolete in Ukraine.
"If you want to take over territory, you need a tank," Colonel Reisner said of the deadliest weapon in ground warfare.
At the same time, he added that FPV-type drones are a key point, which, according to some analysts, in the future will lead to an "underground" way of warfare: remotely controlled weapons will hit the enemy on the surface, while operators will direct shock weapons systems from nearby underground bunkers to ensure line of sight and drone control using radio frequencies.
In such ground battles, FPV-type drones will be the main force against unmanned ground combat vehicles, Colonel Reisner said, adding: "They will fight each other like in the Terminator movie."
Author of the article: Lara Jakes
* An organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent.