The 31 American M1A1 Abrams tanks despatched to Ukraine in 2023 will not be shielded in opposition to top-down Russian assaults, based on the French web site Opex360. U.S. Basic Jeffrey Norman highlighted that the first threats Abrams tanks encounter embody anti-tank guided missiles, stealth munitions, and drones.
“Whereas the M1A1 Abrams boasts wonderful safety in opposition to direct hearth from different fight automobiles, it’s not constructed to defend in opposition to the top-down assaults we’re witnessing in Ukraine,” Opex360 reported.
In September 2023, the Ukrainian Military acquired 31 new models and shortly put into fight operations. Sadly, the primary unit was misplaced in February throughout the intense battles at Avdiivka. Oryx information signifies that 13 extra have since been destroyed.
By April, the Ukrainian Basic Workers made the choice to withdraw the M1A1 Abrams tanks from front-line service because of the rising menace of Remotely Operated Munitions [ROMs]. Talking with the Related Press, a U.S. navy official famous that the Ukrainians “haven’t but adopted ways to maximise the effectiveness of the Abrams,” opting to not combine a extra “mixed strategy.”
The M1A1 Abrams tank is designed with a concentrate on defending its most weak areas: the entrance of the hull and turret. It is because these elements usually tend to face direct enemy hearth in battle. The tank’s frontal armor makes use of cutting-edge composite supplies, together with layers of metal, ceramics, and depleted uranium.
These components present robust resistance in opposition to high-speed armor-piercing rounds and shaped-charge warheads. This strong protection technique ensures the Abrams stays extremely resilient to frontal assaults, notably from enemy tanks or anti-tank guided missiles aimed toward its most fortified factors.
Nonetheless, the turret’s prime, sometimes called the dome, and the roof of the hull aren’t as closely armored because the entrance. This design alternative is predicated on conventional fight eventualities the place direct floor hearth is much less more likely to threaten these areas. Tanks are sometimes engineered to face threats head-on, and their armor reinforces this technique. But, in trendy warfare, rising threats from above, akin to drones and top-attack missiles, spotlight a essential vulnerability within the tank’s thinner dome armor.
To maintain the tank quick and agile, engineers needed to make a vital trade-off: armor thickness. Including heavy armor throughout would compromise its velocity, maneuverability, and gas effectivity—key components in fight. That’s why the tank’s heaviest armor is positioned the place it’s almost certainly to come across threats, leaving the highest extra weak to aerial assaults. This design, good for conventional floor warfare, is now being challenged by trendy anti-tank tech that zeroes in on these top-down weak spots.
In response, Ukraine has been becoming “cope cages” on the turrets of M1A1 Abrams tanks. These metallic slat cages purpose to supply further safety in opposition to drone strikes and top-attack munitions. By disrupting the flight path or detonation of incoming projectiles, these cages assist stop hits to the turret’s weak prime.
In precept, the cope cage serves to both set off the detonation of formed prices prematurely or diminish the payload’s impression by making a barrier between the warhead and the tank.
But, Russian Lancet drones have efficiently bypassed these cope cages and triggered injury to Abrams tanks nonetheless. The Lancet is a loitering munition, designed for exact strikes with a excessive stage of management. Its warhead is crafted to penetrate armor, and the drone can modify its path to strike at weak factors.
Whereas the cope cage may deflect some low-angle assaults, the Lancet typically manages to focus on areas that aren’t absolutely shielded by the cage or ship its explosive cost at an angle that ensures penetration.
Moreover, the Lancet drones boast superior focusing on capabilities designed to ship concentrated pressure, typically bypassing or damaging the so-called cage. Whereas the cope cage affords some stage of safety, it isn’t foolproof in opposition to cutting-edge, high-precision loitering munitions just like the Lancet. These drones can modify their assault angle or discover armor gaps, successfully focusing on weak factors to wreck or disable the Abrams, even with added defensive measures.
Simply to remind you, the M1A1 Abrams options M19 ARAT [Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles], with extra reactive explosive tiles.
On a closing observe, the Challenger 2 appears to be faring the perfect, with solely two out of the 14 delivered misplaced thus far. Nonetheless, the precise quantity that has seen fight stays unclear. An official talked about, “It will get caught within the mud as a result of it’s too heavy,” stating that its 1,200 hp energy plant lacks the facility wanted for passable mobility over powerful terrain.
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