“Bradleys, Self-Propelled Howitzers Head to Ukraine …”

Bradley

” … the package includes 50 Bradley fighting vehicles, 100 M113 armored personnel carriers, 18 self-propelled howitzers, missiles, munitions and more. 

U.S. President Joe Biden previewed the announcement Thursday during remarks at a White House cabinet meeting. 

“We’re going to provide the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles—the United States—to the Ukrainians, and the Germans are going to provide the Marder infantry fighting vehicles that they have to the Ukrainians,” Biden said. 

The announcement comes the same week aspromise from France to provide AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles. 

The Bradleys in particular represent a step up in the sorts of equipment that the United States has said it will provide. They come with 500 TOW anti-tank missiles and 250,000 rounds of 25mm ammunition, but they aren’t quite as capable as the U.S. M1 Abrams tank, which the U.S. is still reluctant to send to Ukraine. 

Laura Cooper, deputy assistant defense secretary for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that the donation of the Bradleys reflects the progress that Ukraine has made in maintaining and equipping its forces. It also reflects the current state of the conflict, which has seen Ukrainian forces press toward deeply reinforced Russian positions in the south and eastern portions of the country. 

“This is the right time for Ukraine to take advantage of its capabilities to change the dynamic on the battlefield,” Cooper said. “And from a maintenance and sustainment standpoint—and this is really important—the Ukrainians have demonstrated a lot of growing proficiency in maintenance and sustainment both within Ukraine and relying on new systems that we have set up with our allies and partners to provide what we call tele-maintenance in many instances. So at this point, the Ukrainians really are set up for success once we are able to train them on the system.”

Cooper also highlighted the importance of upcoming U.S.-led joint maneuver and combined arms training, both in helping Ukraine operate new types of weapons and in attacking entrenched Russian positions. 

“We believe that through the combined arms training, they will better be able to integrate all of their different capabilities. That includes artillery, you know, all range, all types of fires, as well as maneuver to be able to make greater progress on the battlefield and really push back on these Russian positions. So that’s what we’re looking forward to seeing in the coming months,” she said. That training is set to start later this month in Germany. 

The biggest-ever aid package reflects changing Western attitudes toward arming Ukraine and  the new realities of the battlefield. Russia, having lost more than half of the territory it seized at the start of the war, is now hunkered down along the southeastern coast of the country and the Donbas. This week, a senior White House official said that “the Russians have dug in, really dug in, down towards the south. They have taken much more defensive, much more focused [positions] more on defensive lines and defense…in depth down in the south than they have in the northeast.” 

The Biden administration’s hope is that more intense joint maneuver and combined arms operations will erode those reinforced positions at minimal loss to the Ukrainians. 

Some additional munitions in the package announced Friday include RIM-7 “Seasparrow” air-defense missiles, and 4,000 Zuni aircraft rockets that can be mounted on fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft. Cooper emphasized that the Zunis are specifically for short-range air-to-ground operations. “

Comment: IMO Ukraine has been seeking to build a national level mobile armored reserve along the lines of the former “Tiger Forces” (now 25 Special Forces Division) or the 4th Armored Division, both of the Syrian Armed Forces. They are making progress in reaching that goal. With that force in hand, they will be in a position to counter-attack major Russian incursions or to run break through and exploitation operations into Russian held territories. What they need to complete the ensemble is a donation of US, German or perhaps Swedish built MBTs.

A large force of HETs (heavy equipment transporters) would also be useful in this context. We are talking about big low boy trucks to move the force around. You DO NOT want to motor march the force around the country on its own wheels/treads. They wear out because of weight if you do that. pl

Bradleys, Self-Propelled Howitzers Head to Ukraine as More Difficult Fight in the South Awaits – Defense One

Meet All The Heavily Armored Western Combat Vehicles Ukraine Is Getting (msn.com)

This entry was posted in France, Germany, Middle East, Russia, Syria, The Military Art, Ukraine Crisis, weapons. Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to “Bradleys, Self-Propelled Howitzers Head to Ukraine …”

  1. TTG says:

    Poland and Finland are pushing hard to provide Leopard 2 MBTs to Ukraine with a vocal “Free the Leopards” campaign. They and other European countries have plenty in use and in storage. There are also Leopard 2 repair facilities in Poland. I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Berlin to deny these requests and even join in sending the Leopard 2s to Ukraine.

    Norway is also sending 22 M-109 155mm self-propelled guns. That’s more than an artillery battalion worth. Ammo is the key though. I haven’t heard anything about increased Western production. Turkey produces both 120mm and 155mm ammo and hasn’t been shy about arming Ukraine. They recently sent a trainload of their version of MRAP APCs to Ukraine. Some are already in use.

    • Fourth and Long says:

      TTG,

      From: https://t.me/TXDPR/4254 which has several pics of these ammo objects. I’ve no clue what this Bonus stuff is. I understand “Bone us” though.
      ————-
      While Rogozin is sending Macron shrapnel from French self-propelled artillery gun by letter through the ambassador, the most modern and expensive French 155mm artillery ammunition with individual targeting heads BONUS (BOfors NUtating Shell) is already starting to hit the Russian troops.

      It is not shrapnel one should send to Macron, but RPGs and mortars to the “Yellow Vests” and tanks with howitzers to the African countries that the French military controls.
      ———-

      “Production of ammunition” you haven’t heard of? Have you seen the description of the latest US package? It’s chockful of ammunition. Sans any evidence nonetheless I’ll go far out on a limb and just say that OK, you haven’t heard of any. Emphasis “heard.” Neither have I.

      • TTG says:

        F&L,

        Both sides are blowing through their ammo stockpiles a lot faster than planned. The expenditure rate is faster than anyone planned for their own militaries. Right now the West is drawing from their existing stockpiles to supply Ukraine. In order to replenish and expand those stockpiles in the light of new military realities, our production capabilities have to expand. We also have to update our logistics expenditure and resupply tables. I still remember those from C&GSC.

  2. Fourth and Long says:

    The recent US package is huge. Discussions are ongoing for Leopards from Poland. And here is info about equipment from Turkey. Petraeus in a recent interview is on about how he thinks Leopards are preferable to Abrams because the latter are too heavy and maintenance-needy (“a jet engine surrounded by armor.” He pronounces “Leopard” the way I say “Leotard” – the woke Army? “Lee Oh Pard.” Ok. Does a Lee Oh Pard change its spots, I know Leopards don’t).

    Video footage at this link – looks impressive to me. Is it disinfo? No idea.
    https://t.me/TXDPR/4217
    🇷🇴🇹🇷🇺🇦 This afternoon, a train with Turkish 4×4 Kirpi armored personnel carriers passed through the railway station in the Romanian city of Bacau in the direction of Ukraine.

    The footage shows up to 50 armored personnel carriers manufactured by the Turkish Navy company. Most likely, this is another package of military assistance from the Turkish government, announced back in August last year.

    Then the deputy of the Ukrainian party “Servant of the People” Yuri Mysyagin said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine received 50 Kirpi armored personnel carriers, and another 150 would be transferred over the next year.
    ——–
    https://t.me/notes_veterans/7329
    Translation:
    Turkish Kirpi armored vehicles, Polish mortars and German tractors are expected to arrive at the border, in the Valuysky direction in the Belgorod region.
    A column of armored vehicles “Kirpi” moving in the direction of the Kharkov region have already been seen on the way.
    The cunning Turkan Erdogan does not change the old Turkish tradition and continues to support the Nazis.

    Petraeus holds forth:
    1 minute ago! Former CIA Director David Petraeus Says Everyone In Russia Will Be Surprised!
    https://youtu.be/Bnaus77anIw

    Ignorant as I am, the general makes more than a bit of sense. As Don Rickles would often say to one of Johnny Carson’s famous guests “You know something (Ed, James, Frank ..) ? I never liked you.” Why mention that?

    • Fourth and Long says:

      PS:
      Maybe Putin grows a moustache?

      Sorry, that may not sound too nice. I have nothing against the cleanshaven. But think about it – seriously. What if all this time he .. ? No. Wouldn’t have been a good idea at all. In fact a very bad one. It’s all a very great pity.

    • TTG says:

      F&L,

      Petraeus is using the German pronunciation of Leopard. How continental of him.

      • LeaNder says:

        To distinguish between animal and tank? Yes, he obviously is familiar with the German pronunciation. “How continental”, irony? Or pride?

        Whoever is interested: Around 6:40 in on video F&L provides.

        The sequence about the M2/Bradley vs. Leopard starts around 5:00 in. Quite a bit of a logistical challenge, the M2, it seems. Heavy beast. Wikipedia does not support quite his 40 tons, if I got that right. Who is correct? But yes, would still be interesting to find out how many bridges one could use over here with one of those?

        • Pat Lang says:

          Bradley is not a tank.

          • LeaNder says:

            F&L refered to Patraeus’ non-American pronunciation of the Leopard. That’s a tank isn’t it? It is also the name of an animal in both German and English.

            It’s really not worth mentioning but yes, he pronounced it as we do in German. Which understandably sounded odd to Fourth and Long’s ears.

            Not sure why you feel you have to correct me here. I am aware that the Bradley is not a tank.

        • Peter Hug says:

          The T-72 family of tanks all are in the 40-45 tonne range, so they should be pretty much fine.

          All the bridges in northern Viet Nam are marked with their weight capacities, I presume for precisely this reason. I don’t remember seeing that in the south. (This was from several trips I took 2016-2019.)

  3. Sam says:

    Vladimir Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine largely reflected his own profound misjudgments, but Russia’s intelligence services were hardly blameless. Most “intelligence failures” are actually policymaking errors, as decision makers often cherry-pick intelligence to confirm their biases or simply ignore unpleasant information. Putin’s decades-long denial of a separate Ukrainian sovereignty and identify certainly left him predisposed to accept estimates of an easy invasion. Russian security services, however, especially the Federal Security Service (FSB)’s Fifth Service, eagerly confirmed Putin’s biases, aggravating the most significant military disaster in Russian history since at least the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

    https://chinarussiareport.substack.com/p/special-report-russian-intelligences

    It appears Putin’s misjudgment along with intelligence failures led to the defeat of the Kyiv decapitation strategy.

  4. Leith says:

    Will Stryker AFVs be in the next shipment to Ukraine? Or LAV-25s? Or Canadian LAVs?

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