[Goose]

Extremely cool video of two Ukrainian Bradleys taking out a Russian T-90M tank, their most modern operational type. It's a bit long and confusing, definitely helps to watch on a large screen, but very rare to see a tank on tank or especially tank on IFV duel on video.

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1745932015210213682

It looks like the first Bradley engages the tank at very close range with 25mm chain gun fire going from the left to right at the bottom of the screen. The tank fires several times with its 125mm main gun but misses. The first Bradley then retreats to the bottom right, and another comes to engage the tank again with the 25mm cannon. It don't think that either Bradley tried to use its TOW missiles, ostensibly a more powerful anti tank weapon, but perhaps I missed it. At some point I think the T90M activates it's APS protection system, which is what the big explosions/flares/smoke are, so maybe there was a TOW or other missile fired or targeted at the tank.

In any case, the Bradleys, especially the second one, hit the tank with a LOT of 25mm fire in apparently vulnerable enough positions to send the turret spinning uncontrollably and the tank crashing into a tree, functionally destroyed.

You can see other Bradley 25mm fire in the background as well directed probably at Russian troops or fortifications in the distant treeline. It's been a very potent weapon for Ukraine. Just another example of 40 year old western equipment taking down Russia's "best".

Also, likely very important to the outcome for Ukraine to have this overhead view of the engagement. The Bradleys moved with purpose likely because they knew what was happening. The Russian tank didn't seem to really know what to do.

It is difficult to know what was going on in that "engagement". First of all, if you are a Bradley engaging any MBT with your 25 mm gun, something has gone horribly wrong. Engaging a MBT with a TOW missile from a Bradley that isn't in defilade or at least cover is also frowned upon. You do it only if you have no choice or if you are pretty sure you have the element of surprise. In any case, going "head to head" with a MBT should result in the Bradley losing the fight very quickly very early on.

That said, the Russian tank crew was obviously incompetent. If the Bradley was hitting them with their 25 mm, the T-90 has no excuse for not destroying the Bradley with their 125 mm main gun. They shouldn't miss once, let alone multiple times. They are relatively "safe", at least for several minutes. It shouldn't be a panic situation. Their state of training is very suspect, or possibly their tank's electronics are not working and they are shooting in a very degraded mode.

The APS of the tank is normally "activated" whenever it is engaged in combat. There are many different kinds, but in most cases it includes ERA bricks. It doesn't all go off at once in response to an incoming projectile. What we see in the video is quite possibly a malfunction caused by multiple 25 mm hits. ERA bricks are also not supposed to go off by sympathetic detonation, but in this case it appears they did. The Arena-M system (which T-90s supposedly have) launches small missiles. No way can it produce such a wide-area effect effect in normal operation and it can't fire all it's missiles at once either. It is possible that 25 mm fire hit the system controller which then blew up, detonating it's ammunition supply.

The uncontrollably spinning turret may indicate some battle damage, but it also could indicate somebody's body is pressing on the control. The 25 mm fire may have "scraped off" all the viewing systems so the tank was blind. Normally the response to that should be jump out and run :-). Didn't see that either. The explosion on top of the turret may have damaged the hatches and they couldn't get out. The tank may also be filling with smoke.

The extent to which the drone picture helped the Bradleys isn't knowable, but it is very improbable they could see the video picture themselves. They don't have the comms gear to do that, at least not "as built". They might have received info via radio messages, but in a tank battle the participants are usually pretty busy and such inputs are of limited utility. My question would be why the drone info wasn't used to keep the Bradleys out of harms way to begin with and the T-90 engaged by Ukrainian MBTs or infantry with Javelins. Its great that in this battle Ukraine prevailed, but by all rights they should not have.

[Goose]

Extremely cool video of two Ukrainian Bradleys taking out a Russian T-90M tank, their most modern operational type. It's a bit long and confusing, definitely helps to watch on a large screen, but very rare to see a tank on tank or especially tank on IFV duel on video.

https://twitter.com/moklasen/status/1745932015210213682

It looks like the first Bradley engages the tank at very close range with 25mm chain gun fire going from the left to right at the bottom of the screen. The tank fires several times with its 125mm main gun but misses. The first Bradley then retreats to the bottom right, and another comes to engage the tank again with the 25mm cannon. It don't think that either Bradley tried to use its TOW missiles, ostensibly a more powerful anti tank weapon, but perhaps I missed it. At some point I think the T90M activates it's APS protection system, which is what the big explosions/flares/smoke are, so maybe there was a TOW or other missile fired or targeted at the tank.

In any case, the Bradleys, especially the second one, hit the tank with a LOT of 25mm fire in apparently vulnerable enough positions to send the turret spinning uncontrollably and the tank crashing into a tree, functionally destroyed.

You can see other Bradley 25mm fire in the background as well directed probably at Russian troops or fortifications in the distant treeline. It's been a very potent weapon for Ukraine. Just another example of 40 year old western equipment taking down Russia's "best".

Also, likely very important to the outcome for Ukraine to have this overhead view of the engagement. The Bradleys moved with purpose likely because they knew what was happening. The Russian tank didn't seem to really know what to do.

It is difficult to know what was going on in that "engagement". First of all, if you are a Bradley engaging any MBT with your 25 mm gun, something has gone horribly wrong. Engaging a MBT with a TOW missile from a Bradley that isn't in defilade or at least cover is also frowned upon. You do it only if you have no choice or if you are pretty sure you have the element of surprise. In any case, going "head to head" with a MBT should result in the Bradley losing the fight very quickly very early on.

That said, the Russian tank crew was obviously incompetent. If the Bradley was hitting them with their 25 mm, the T-90 has no excuse for not destroying the Bradley with their 125 mm main gun. They shouldn't miss once, let alone multiple times. They are relatively "safe", at least for several minutes. It shouldn't be a panic situation. Their state of training is very suspect, or possibly their tank's electronics are not working and they are shooting in a very degraded mode.

The APS of the tank is normally "activated" whenever it is engaged in combat. There are many different kinds, but in most cases it includes ERA bricks. It doesn't all go off at once in response to an incoming projectile. What we see in the video is quite possibly a malfunction caused by multiple 25 mm hits. ERA bricks are also not supposed to go off by sympathetic detonation, but in this case it appears they did. The Arena-M system (which T-90s supposedly have) launches small missiles. No way can it produce such a wide-area effect effect in normal operation and it can't fire all it's missiles at once either. It is possible that 25 mm fire hit the system controller which then blew up, detonating it's ammunition supply.

The uncontrollably spinning turret may indicate some battle damage, but it also could indicate somebody's body is pressing on the control. The 25 mm fire may have "scraped off" all the viewing systems so the tank was blind. Normally the response to that should be jump out and run :-). Didn't see that either. The explosion on top of the turret may have damaged the hatches and they couldn't get out. The tank may also be filling with smoke.

The extent to which the drone picture helped the Bradleys isn't knowable, but it is very improbable they could see the video picture themselves. They don't have the comms gear to do that, at least not "as built". They might have received info via radio messages, but in a tank battle the participants are usually pretty busy and such inputs are of limited utility. My question would be why the drone info wasn't used to keep the Bradleys out of harms way to begin with and the T-90 engaged by Ukrainian MBTs or infantry with Javelins. Its great that in this battle Ukraine prevailed, but by all rights they should not have.