How Russia can destroy the Abrams super tank given to Ukraine by the US
(Dan Tri) – Experts point out the looming threat of Abrams main battle tanks donated by the US to Ukraine to deal with Russian forces.
US M1 Abrams main battle tank (Photo: Veteran Life).
In an interview with Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, Gustav Gressel, a military expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) based in Germany, talked about the vulnerability of US-made Abrams tanks.
The continued development of drones in conflict has been dramatically changing the threat Abrams tanks face, Gressel said.
This expert believes that, as UAVs become more advanced, the Abrams’ traditional armor may not be enough to withstand precision attacks, increasing the risk of super tanks being destroyed.
According to Mr. Gressel, the US transfer of Abrams tanks to Ukraine is a typical example of how time can significantly affect the effectiveness of weapons on the battlefield.
He said that if Ukraine had been able to gain access to modern Western tanks last year, Kiev could have gained an important strategic advantage by the fall of 2022. At that time, he assessed its capabilities.
However, he said that Russia has adapted quickly and changed its drone tactics in the past few months.
According to him, Russia can now detect and destroy enemy tanks and armor much faster than last year.
Last month, Major General Vadym Skibitsky, Deputy Director General of the General Directorate of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, said that on the front line, UAVs were so dense in the air that soldiers and tanks moved into open space only a few minutes ago.
He estimates that the weapon’s survivability when moving outside is no more than 10 minutes.
Russia and Ukraine are both deploying thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the battlefield and are using cheap UAVs to attack each other’s forces.
Meanwhile, retired Russian Colonel Sergey Suvorov, an expert on armored vehicles, said that the reason why Moscow forces were able to destroy tanks provided by the West as aid to Ukraine was mainly because of the way they operated.
According to Mr. Suvorov, Ukraine often dispatches Western equipment without adequate support, such as ignoring necessary precautions when these vehicles pass through minefields or not conducting thorough reconnaissance operations.
He believes that this is the reason that when tanks appear, they often become targets of Russian fire and obstacles.
Late last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the first batch of US Abrams tanks had arrived in Ukraine.