Anti-Tank Weapon Analysis: How Ukraine Destroyed 3,197 Russian Tanks

by Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Heavy armored formations and mechanized units engineered for dispersed, yet “linear” attacks to penetrate and hold enemy territory are not likely disappearing anytime soon as a critical element of modern Combined Army Maneuver, yet there is little question that the warfare in Ukraine is re-defining certain key ground-war tactics in favor of lightweight, de-centralized, agile and ground-fired anti-tank weapons used by dispersed, dismounted forces and fast, light tactical vehicles. When combined with precise overhead surveillance, unmanned systems and some measure of effective networking, Ukrainians armed with shoulder-fired anti-armor weapons continue to exact a devastating toll upon Russian assault platforms. 

A significant Army Intelligence Report called the “The Operational Environment 2024-2034 Large-Scale Combat Operations.” (US Army Training and Doctrine Command, G2) says that Russia’s entire active duty tank force has been destroyed in its war with Ukraine. 

“Ukrainian Armed Forces have used vast quantities of man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), antitank guided missiles, and FPV UAS—combined with fires—to great effect. As of July 2024, Russia has lost 3,197 main battle tanks—more than its entire active-duty inventory at the outset of conflict—and 6,160 armored fighting vehicles, forcing them to pull increasingly obsolescent systems from storage,” the text of the report from 2024 states.

Certainly the world has observed and noted the sheer tenacity, resolve and tactical proficiency with which Ukrainians have defended their country, some of UKraine’s success is also likely due to the technological maturation of the weapons themselves in terms of longer-range, more precise sensing, high-fidelity targeting and enhanced munitions and warheads. This is the case for the Javelin and Carl Gustaf as well as other anti-armor weapons. There is also a significant tactical element of this, as Ukrainians have employed ambush-style, surprise hit-and-run tactics using terrain, urban areas and crosspoints to destroying approaching Russian armor. 

This is also quite likely while the Marine Corps Force Design 2030 favors manned-unmanned teaming and the employment of highly-lethal yet expeditionary, mobile and deployable anti-armor weapons and platforms. Of course the Corps will keep am impactful number of tanks in its arsenal, technological advances in networking, unmanned systems and the ability of dispersed or dismounted forces to massive increase lethality against armored formations due to breakthroughs with sensing, explosives and ground-fired targeting. This is why the Corps document favors a greater use of easy to deploy high-speed tactical vehicles armed with extremely precise, lethal and explosive anti-armor weapons. A faster-moving, more dispersed force is not only harder for an enemy  armored vehicles to target, but also able to expand the target envelope for attacking forces in terms of angle, speed and maneuver. 

Anti-Armor weapons – Carl Gustaf 

The war in Ukraine has shone a spotlight on anti-armor weapons and the extent to which they can cripple, slow down, and destroy armored formations in war.