The success Ukraine has seen using old American Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles against Russia shows what Ukraine can do when it is given enough of the weapons it needs, a warfare expert told Business Insider.
The US has given Ukraine more than 300 Bradleys, significantly more than some other armored combat vehicles, like the Abrams tanks; the US only sent Ukraine 31 of those.
Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander for the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear forces, said that the numbers available have given Ukraine the ability to use its Bradleys far more effectively than the tanks.
“They’ve got a lot of them,” Hamish said of the Bradleys. “And if they had a lot of Abrams and a lot of Challengers, they would use them differently.”
The way Ukraine’s Western partners have supplied weapons, often in small numbers and after significant delays, has come with heavy criticism throughout the war.
Having enough of a weapon is important for militaries as it allows them to use those weapons more flexibly. It means being able to put the weapons in risky situations where they could achieve big breakthroughs, and if any are lost, it’s not a major tactical and PR disaster.
With the US-provided Bradleys that Ukraine is using, “because they’ve got a lot of them, they can afford to lose a few. When you’ve only got 14 Challenger 2s, you can’t really afford to lose many,” de Bretton-Gordon said. “So I think that is key.”
He said that it’s a lesson for the West, where a belief grew that fewer, very technical pieces of kit would beat a larger number of weaker pieces. “We’re now realizing that you sort of need a balance,” he said.
Bradleys were built as a response to the Soviet infantry fighting vehicles and first entered service in the 1980s. They are not the most advanced armored vehicles available, but they are versatile and highly capable. And Ukraine’s successes in battle with this vehicle have resulted in a “Bradley legend,” de Bretton-Gordon said.
“So when you look at the Bradleys, it’s their mass and the way that they’re used, which is why they’re so successful,” he said. In Ukraine, Bradleys have fought against infantry in bunkers, troop carriers, drones, and even top tanks.
He said he thinks “the Bradley legend is very, very good for the Ukrainians,” adding that “it stiffens the resolve of the Ukrainians, and no doubt it’s also it’s added fear to the Russians.”
‘Drip feeding’ Ukraine
Many warfare experts, soldiers, and even some allied governments have criticized the way many of Ukraine’s partners give it aid. Weapons often arrive after months of debate (during which Russia can prepare), in small numbers, and in packages that don’t give Ukraine a clear picture or certainty on future deliveries.
“The drip feeding of kit to Ukraine,” de Bretton-Gordon said, means “they’ve been fighting with one hand behind their back.”
An American soldier fighting in Ukraine told BI earlier this year that Western aid arrives in “tidbits” and after lengthy debates, with different levels of support arriving in different packages.
He said that “it feels like everything that we’ve been getting has been either too late or just enough to barely hold on. It feels like whenever they donate things, it’s kind of just enough to keep Ukraine standing but without thought of the long term.”
That means Ukraine’s soldiers often can’t develop long-term strategies, he said, adding his belief that Ukraine would be in a better place without this issue.
De Bretton-Gordon said that when it comes to weapons like Western tanks, “had we not waited a year and given them tanks straight away, and had we given them hundreds of tanks, not a hundred, of course it would make a huge difference.”
“And I think the frustrating thing is there are thousands of Western tanks sitting in tank sheds rusting across Europe, be they American German or whatever,” he said.
The larger number of Bradleys available to them has given the Ukrainians more to work with in varied operations and the ability to lose them. According to the Oryx open-source tracker, Ukraine has lost at least 90 of these vehicles. It’s unclear if any of those were recovered and repaired. Ukraine still has to be smart with them, and it has been, but it has the option to take some risks.
The numbers just aren’t there for other weapons like the Abrams, which even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said came in insufficient numbers to make a substantial difference.
Bradleys are excelling
Bradleys have thus, at times, proven to be more useful than Abrams tanks, BI previously reported, with warfare experts noting that their light frames make them particularly well-suited to the style of warfare seen in Russia’s invasion.
Despite having lighter armor, they have been effective against Russian tanks. Experts previously told BI that Ukraine has been good at adapting with the vehicles to the needs of this war.
Nicholas Drummond, a former British Army officer who now works as a land warfare analyst, told BI they are effective because they are lighter than tanks and can go places those tanks struggle to go, and they have a flexible cannon with a high-rate of fire that can provide fire support and immobilize tank sensors.
De Bretton-Gordon described them as “a really good piece of kit because it’s reliable, it’s easy to use, it moves around quickly, and it is fairly well protected.”
As a result of their successes in Ukraine, they are seen as better weapons than they were before this war, he said, with people talking about it “in very positive terms, which I wouldn’t have done four or five years ago.”
“When I was a tank commander in the first Gulf War, there were Bradleys around, and we didn’t think that they were that great then,” he said, but now, “they’re creating a bit of a legend.”
De Bretton-Gordon said that Ukraine’s Bradley wins against Russian tanks came because it has “worked out the real vulnerabilities of Russian tanks.” Ukraine has surprisingly used Bradleys “to actually hunt down tanks as well,” he noted.
He said there have been moments when “two or three Bradleys are attacking a T-90 or a T-80″—some of Russia’s most advanced tanks. A video earlier this year showed two Bradleys hitting a T-90M before its crew abandoned the tank. A drone appeared to finish it off.
De Bretton-Gordon said that Ukraine has exploited the weaknesses that exist in many Russian tanks. On these tanks, the places where the turret meets the hull “are very vulnerable because there’s virtually no armor there.”
Hence, even if Bradleys have small rounds compared to what a tank can fire, “if you fire enough of those at the right place, it can take out a tank.”
And, again, having more Bradleys to use means Ukraine can be extra effective.
“And, of course, if you’ve got two or three Bradleys firing at one T-90 — and the Russians haven’t been very clever the way they’ve used their tanks — that overwhelming firepower means that they’re taking these T-90s out and the Bradley is sort of becoming a bit of a mythological beast.”
