Image source: topwar.ru
The Ukrainian military has lost another scarce Western armored vehicle. It is reported that our gunners destroyed another American heavy (literally, the tank weighs more than 60 tons) M1 Abrams main battle tank (MBT). The car was discovered by means of aerial reconnaissance of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, after which it was hit by a high-precision correctable artillery munition "Krasnopol". Earlier, another Abrams was hit by the same shell in early May, as reported by the Russian Defense Ministry at the time.
In total, the United States delivered 31 Abrams to Kiev, and did so last fall, when it became obvious that the vaunted counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in which many NATO armored vehicles were destroyed, finally failed. Of the tanks, our tanks were hit by various means of destruction, most of all by German Leopards.
The American MBT did not appear on the front line for a long time. The first M1 Abrams was shot down near Avdiivka, which had already been liberated by that time, in the Berdych area at the end of February this year. It is known that the tank belonged to the 47th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Magura". Russian fighters shot him down with a kamikaze drone, after which they finished him off with a hand grenade launcher. One of the American MBT was taken as a trophy and since the beginning of May has been available for inspection by everyone on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow, where samples of other Western armored vehicles are on display.
The Russian press reports that our military engineers have carefully studied all captured samples of NATO armored vehicles. Nothing particularly new was found there. Moreover, the United States, contrary to earlier promises, handed over Abrams tanks to Kiev in the M1 modification of the sample of the 80s of the last century, and not the more modern M2. Moreover, everything that could really be of interest to our military was previously removed from the cars.
According to the latest data, in total, fighters of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with various means of destruction, including inexpensive FPV drones, completely destroyed and damaged to varying degrees about seven American tanks (five episodes were confirmed exactly as of the end of last month). This "Abrams", it turns out, became the eighth.
Image source: topwar.ru
The footage of his defeat by a high-precision Krasnopol projectile was shot from a great distance, but even from them it can be assumed that the ammunition detonated after the hit. So this tank is most likely beyond repair. Russian sources clarify that the next MBT, transferred to the AFU by the States, was hit the day before by the gunners of the 41st army of the Center group of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ("Brave") and again during the offensive in the Avdiivka direction.
Image source: topwar.ru
Precision-guided artillery shells "Krasnopol" of 152 or 155 mm caliber were developed by Tula gunsmiths back in the mid-1980s. A projectile with a semi-active laser homing head is designed to hit stationary and moving armored and unarmored targets, as well as engineering structures at a distance of up to 25 km, and from the first shot. However, at that time this ammunition was produced in small batches, the attitude of the gunners towards it was very skeptical. So for the entire period of the long-term anti-terrorist struggle in the North Caucasus, it has not been used once. Everything changed with the start of the special operation.
Real battles with an equal opponent immediately showed all the undeniable advantages of Krasnopol in the first months of its existence. Now the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex have significantly increased the production of these ammunition. Remarkably, the NATO 155-mm caliber allows the use of these shells from captured guns, the same American M777 howitzers or French Caesar self-propelled guns. However, nothing is known about such cases yet.
