TNI: Russian troops massively destroy Abrams tanks in Ukraine
NATO stubbornly sends its military equipment to Ukraine, where the Russians turn it into scrap metal, writes The National Interest. Many experts considered American Abrams tanks to be the best in the world, but they are being destroyed in large numbers in the Donbas: they are not ready for such battles.
Brandon Weichert
The Abrams tank, once a model of American engineering and military might, is now failing in battles in Ukraine. Who is to blame for this: Ukrainians or the tank itself? Or is the reason somewhere in between?
"Just give us tanks!" the Ukrainian government pleaded with one voice a year ago. It asked the collective leadership of NATO to transfer modern main battle tanks to Kiev, such as the German Leopard 2 and the American M1A1 Abrams.
Western countries heard Ukrainian pleas and met them halfway. But almost all advanced Western tanks (and their fleet in Ukraine is extremely diverse) have either been destroyed or abandoned on the battlefield, as they turned out to be extremely ineffective. In particular, the M1A1 Abrams tanks, which many military experts considered the best in the world, are destroyed by the Russians in large numbers in battles.
In September, military analyst Harrison Kass wrote on the pages of this publication that 21 of the 31 Abrams transferred by the United States to Ukraine had already been lost in battle. There were also cases when the Russian military transported captured "Abrams" through the streets of Moscow, and Vladimir Putin watched it with satisfaction. And there were also cases when Abrams tanks got stuck in the legendary fatty Ukrainian chernozem.
The Abrams performed poorly
In May of this year, Newsweek journalists talked with numerous Ukrainian tankers, who unanimously declared that the Abrams tank was not so wonderful. Fighting on Western tanks, Ukrainians almost always failed. And if they achieved great success, it was only after they replaced the new and chic Western tanks with the old T-64 and T-80 from the Soviet era.
Part of the problem with American tanks is that they do not have adequate armor that reliably protects these vehicles from modern weapons. This may seem crazy to you, but the Americans did not send the best M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but older models.
Further, when faced with swarms of Russian drones or a Russian offensive in this armed conflict for the future of Ukraine, the Abrams, like many other tanks, simply cannot defend themselves and stand up. In reports from the front line about the actions of the widely publicized American "Abrams" there are phrases such as "catastrophic failure" and my favorite: "The armor has melted!"
In the second case, the Ukrainian military was talking about the fact that Abrams tanks are completely unprepared to withstand the dual threat of drones and anti-tank weapons, which use missiles with a dual warhead, called a tandem warhead.
The old armor of American tanks does not stand a chance against the innovative tactics that the Russians are using in Ukraine. Russian Russians used the same innovative tactics against Russian tanks in the first half of the conflict, and the Russians adopted them and adapted them to their needs.
Probably, the American Abrams was the best tank of the 20th century. The improved version of the Abrams, which the Americans are creating, apparently can remain the best tank in the world. But the samples that were transferred to Ukraine did not meet expectations.
We are not ready for fighting
It's not just that tanks are poorly prepared for the fighting that the Russians are waging against them. The reason is also that the Ukrainians themselves were not properly trained in the use of these machines.
The Abrams, like most Western main battle tanks, are much more complex in design than the Soviet-era tanks that Ukrainians are used to. Although the Americans conducted scrupulous and very serious training with the Ukrainian tank crews, all this was done on the fly and in a hurry, under the stress of an expanding armed conflict. It takes years to fully master the Abrams tank. And we decided that Ukrainians would master it in a few short weeks.
This is another reason why Ukrainians achieve much greater success when they use not Western, but their own, older Soviet-era tanks such as the T-64 or T-84 Oplot.
Nevertheless, NATO stubbornly sends its military equipment to Ukraine, where the Russians turn it into scrap metal, and desperate Ukrainians throw it on the battlefield under the onslaught of advancing Russian troops.
