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The United States has provided Ukraine with a large number of M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. This type has been in service since 1981. In the beginning, its aluminium armour raised a lot of concerns about crew’s survivability. Now Bradley has demonstrated that it can survive a direct hit from the Russian main battle tank T-72.
M2 Bradley is proving its hardness in Ukraine over 40 years since the beginning of its service. Image credit: Lycksele-Nord via Wikimedia (CC BY-AS 4.0)
The M2 Bradley was developed for reconnaissance and infantry support missions. It was produced in 1981-1995. It is far from a new machine and it was essentially created in a different time in history.
Engineers tried to make the Bradley IFV as light as possible to maintain high mobility on the battlefield. However, the downside of that was that armour had to be relatively thin or made from different materials.
The M2 Bradley has a welded aluminium monocoque structure to which the main armour is attached. The armour is also made mostly of aluminium. 7017 aluminium to be precise – this grade of alloy is quite hard and hardens naturally, but it is not steel. And when the M2 Bradley was new, it raised a lot of concerns – won’t enemy weapons just poke holes through Bradley’s aluminium hull like it’s a slab of butter?
The main task of an infantry fighting vehicle on the battlefield is to provide fire support and transport infantry, which the M2 Bradly IFV does perfectly. Image credit: Armed Forces of Ukraine
It did not. Actually, for over 40 years the reliability and survivability of the M2 Bradley was quite good. It was proved in a large number of different military campaigns, including the Persian Gulf War.
In the Desert Storm operation, several Bradleys found themselves caught in friendly fire incidents, but many of their crew members survived. Other vehicles, such as LAV-25 with welded steel armour, did not fare as safely.
At some point the concerns about the protection of the crew inside Bradley vehicles caused additional armour to be installed in a form of spaced laminate belts and high-hardness steel skirts. This did improve protection, but also grew the machine’s weight to 33 tonnes.
And now M2 Bradley is on the battlefield again. This time in Ukraine it is proving that it can and does protect its crew. A new video recently was posted online, showing a Bradley IFV with a huge hole in its side.
The Bradley in the video likely took a hit from the 125 mm gun, but according to Ukrainian military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko, it has proven to be one of the safest infantry fighting vehicles in the world. It’s been suggested that this particular Bradley absorbed a direct hit from a T-72 main battle tank. It is not clear if that was the case, but the hit was significant.
Ukraine needs to maintain its equipment very well and use it responsibly. But the survivability of the crew is paramount. And for more than 40 years the M2 Bradley has been showing that it can protect its crew very well indeed.
Bradley infantry fighting vehicles on their way to Ukraine. Image credit: DVIDS via Wikimedia
Written by Povilas M.
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