The Russian Defense Ministry has released images of special forces scouts examining a knocked out Ukrainian Abrams tank in the Berdychi settlement, about 3 km northeast of Avdiivka, from which it can be seen that the interior of the vehicle is almost intact.
Military expert Alexey Leonkov explained how Russia can benefit from learning and studying the technical features of the US main battle tank.
“ Our task was to inspect the tank to determine whether it was intact, to learn about its weapons and equipment ,” a scout nicknamed “Leshy,” who took part in the mission, told Sputnik.
The soldier said it was not easy to reach the wreckage of the Abrams tank, due to its proximity to Ukrainian positions. Currently, neither side can deploy mechanized vehicles to pull the M1A1 from the scene, due to frequent enemy artillery and suicide drones.
A Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank destroyed on the battlefield.
“ Any vehicle or equipment that is sent to recover this Abrams is likely to suffer unnecessary losses, ” explained the senior intelligence officer with the call sign “Izay,” the soldier who captured the impressive footage inside the Abrams.
To date, four of the 31 M1A1 Abrams delivered to Ukraine by the US have been destroyed or damaged and abandoned. Russian tank hunters have used a combination of FPV drones and mobile anti-tank systems such as the RPG-7 to take out the heavy tanks.
What can Russia gain by studying Abrams?
The Abrams donated to Ukraine are simplified variants of the prototypes in service with the US Army. While they share the same hull and turret design, the Ukrainian Abrams lack the specialized equipment found on US tanks, such as uranium armor, advanced fire control systems, and drone detection tools.
“ What will this tank give us? First of all, we can study the tank hull, the turret and all its internal systems ,” Moscow-based military expert Alexey Leonkov told Sputnik.
Destroyed Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank.
“ We can identify its weaknesses, from which we can understand how the Abrams’ fire control system and main gun fire. Once we identify the weaknesses, we will make the necessary adjustments to be able to destroy this tank with all existing anti-tank weapons in a simpler way .”
“ Any Ukrainian tank is always studied very carefully. I think that sooner or later it will be dragged to the testing ground, where new anti-tank guns will be tested to defeat tanks from the West ,” the observer explained.
Western tanks on the battlefield in Ukraine
“ The poor combat performance of Abrams and other Western main battle tanks on the Ukrainian battlefield has been acknowledged by the Russian military, independent observers, and even the Western and Ukrainian media, ” Leonkov pointed out.
On March 21, a post in the Kyiv Post compared NATO's expensive, heavily armored tanks to Soviet-era tanks and argued that Western countries should never have transferred them to Ukraine in the first place.
Iraq War expert and former Abrams tank commander Mike Riedmuller said the M1 Abrams and other tanks failed to perform as expected in Ukraine due to the density of cheap drones on the battlefield, making the operations of armored vehicles virtually impossible.
“ Tank clashes between Russia and Ukraine are rare, compared to past wars ,” said former British tank commander Simon Johnson.
In addition, the tanks that NATO delivered to Ukraine had a host of other problems, from poor performance in muddy terrain, to lack of spare parts for replacement and repair, and excessive fuel consumption, as well as mobility issues due to heavy armor, which prevented them from moving across some bridges in Ukraine.
Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank.
Realizing this, especially after the failed counteroffensive last summer, the Ukrainian Army had to use its remaining tanks more carefully, including those provided by NATO and, since Soviet times, only deployed in areas with lots of trees and bad weather to avoid being detected by Russian UAVs.
But this strategy of Kiev is said to not bring the expected results, because these vehicles are continuously detected and eliminated from combat by Russian drones.
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