Is Russia Stealing Ukrainian Anti-Armor Tactics to Destroy Western Tanks?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Ukraine’s massive counteroffensive is reportedly having some initial success, but not without destruction to Western tanks and armored vehicles.

Citing the open-source public intelligence-gathering website Oryx, an interesting essay in CNN says as many as 16 Bradley Fighting Vehicles have been destroyed by Russian forces during the counteroffensive. Multiple mainstream public reports also say additional US armored vehicles and German-built Leopard tanks have also been destroyed during the advance.

Although Oryx’s site is very well documented and often includes pictures and specifics, the exact amount of damage to Ukrainian armor is likely difficult to discern with complete precision, yet it is not at all surprising that there has been these kinds of losses.

There are several possible reasons for this, none of which seem particularly surprising. Any mechanized force surging forward to “close with an enemy” implicitly put itself at great risk, so Ukrainian armor on offense will confront much more significant and highly concentrated pockets of armed enemy resistance. Should armored vehicles be operating in a purely defensive capacity, the level of risk, vulnerability or exposure to enemy fire is quite different. Advancing armored vehicles, even with some measure of overhead ISR and suppressive longer-range fires, are susceptible to ambushes, hit-and-run attacks or certain kinds of anti-armor strikes from elevated, obscured or protected positions.

Russian CopyCat anti-armor tactics?

There is yet another significant factor to consider regarding Russian anti-armor tactics, which is their having observed Ukraine. While Russian fighters are known to suffer morale problems and be ineffective at various kinds of Combined Arms Maneuver according to many observers, they have likely learned from having observed Ukraine’s highly successful anti-armor attacks. Ukrainians were not only effective with anti-armor weapons themselves such as Javelins which have a proven ability to decimate armor, but they were also enterprising in their use of tactics. Ukrainians used decentralized, dismounted groups of attackers leveraging terrain, altitude and narrow passageways to destroy Russian armor while remaining elusive targets themselves. For instance, it was quickly learned that Russian tanks were particularly vulnerable to top-down attacks as they are less armored and likely did not have hemispheric Active Protection Systems able to track and intercept incoming fire from above.