A second Ukrainian Army M1A1 Abrams tank has been destroyed in fight with Russian forces, with this confirmed by footage launched on March 3. This got here 9 days after drone footage launched on February 23 first confirmed that the tank class had been deployed for fight, which was follows three days later by the confirmed destruction of the primary tank. Russian sources have additionally claimed that alongside the second kill, a tracked mine-clearing car based mostly on the Abrams chassis was additionally destroyed. On March 1 a Russian drone crew commander instructed state media outlet TASS that one other Abrams tank had been destroyed within the ultimate week of February, stating: “The primary Abrams was utterly destroyed with using an FPV drone. Then, an armoured restoration car on the Abrams platform was hit. In barely greater than a day, the third Abrams was struck by a drone. This time, the crew managed to get out,” he mentioned, including that these U.S. tanks have been simple to neutralise through the use of artillery or drones. Footage publicised on February 23 confirmed one Abrams tank left stationary alongside a highway close to the frontlines, fuelling widespread speculated that it might have been taken out in fight and deserted, which can have been the car the unnamed drone commander was referring to. This could convey complete losses to a few tanks and one armoured restoration car. It’s also doable that the footage launched on March 3 was of the destruction of the second tank destroyed in February referred to by the drone operator, and that there was merely some delay in releasing the footage.
The primary confirmed profitable concentrating on of an Abrams on February 23 noticed the car disabled by a single use ‘kamikaze’ drone and completed off with successful from a man-portable anti tank grenade launcher. It stays unsure how the second car was destroyed, though some sources have indicated {that a} drone strike was additionally accountable. Thirty one Abrams tanks have been delivered to Ukraine after some delay starting within the ultimate week of September, which means in contrast to different belongings equivalent to German Leopard 2 tanks and American M2 Bradley combating automobiles which took heavy losses in 2023, the American tanks weren’t concerned in summer time offensives towards Russian positions. The tanks are operated underneath the forty seventh Separate Mechanised Brigade. Russian sources have broadly highlighted the Abrams’ destruction as the newest of many public relations victories for the nation’s ongoing struggle effort, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov having said on February 26: “From the very starting, our troopers mentioned that these tanks would burn similar to any others.” It was beforehand lengthy speculated that Abrams tanks would shortly start to take losses if deployed close to the frontlines towards Russian forces, with the M1A1 having demonstrated solely very restricted survivability when deployed by the armies of Iraq and Saudi Arabia in a lot decrease depth environments towards evenly armed insurgents.
