With Ukraine short on battle tanks like the Abrams, US-made Bradley fighting vehicles are proving their worth

• US-made Bradley fighting vehicles have been a highly effective tool for Ukraine.
• With lots of maneuverability and firepower, they have been used on the battlefield as light tanks.
• For Kyiv, Bradleys are also more expendable than other Western armor like Abrams tanks.

NATO members have equipped Ukraine with plenty of highly capable armored vehicles to take into battle against Russia, giving Kyiv a firepower, survivability, and maneuverability upgrade over the aging Soviet-era systems with which it started its grueling fight.

Among the wartime additions to Ukraine's arsenal is the US-made Bradley fighting vehicle, a formidable asset that continues proving its worth on the battlefield several decades after it first saw combat.

There was tremendous hype around the arrival of the American-made M1 Abrams tank, but that's faded. However, the Bradley, despite suffering significantly more losses, has consistently been celebrated for its effectiveness, in some ways overshadowing the Abrams.

Kyiv didn't get very many Abrams, limiting their ability to make an impact on the battlefield and making the tanks more precious than the far more plentiful and more expendable Bradleys.

These vehicles don't deliver the same overall combat strength as the Abrams, as they're essentially armored troop carriers and fighting vehicles, but the Bradleys can serve in ways akin to a tank and aren't without their advantages.

The American-made Bradleys, in the hands of the Ukrainians, are "in effect being used as a light tank," Mark Cancian, a defense expert and retired US Marine Corps colonel, told Business Insider.

A 'very effective' infantry fighting vehicle

The Bradleys were built as a response to the Soviet infantry fighting vehicles and entered service in the 1980s. It is a combat-proven system, having deployed in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and then again to Iraq in the following decade, and has been praised for its maneuverability, survivability, and firepower — especially its ability to take out enemy armor on the move.

With an operational range of around 300 miles and a crew of three, the Bradley can transport as many as six fully equipped soldiers to and from the battlefield at speeds of up to 40 mph. It is armed with tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided (TOW) missiles, a 25mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun, and a 7.62mm M240C machine gun.

The Bradley features a thermal vision system also found on Ukraine's Abrams tanks that is able to detect targets out to a distance of five miles. Its steel and aluminum armor, as well as a plate on the front of its belly, are durable enough to protect against some munitions and shield it against certain mine explosions.

The Bradley's armor can also be bolstered with explosive reactive armor, like a main battle tank, to further protect it.

A former US Army infantry officer told Business Insider "the capabilities that it brings in terms of speed, its ability to keep up with the tanks, your ability to move infantry squads in a protected manner across the battlefield very quickly, and its fairly robust armor package — along with the capabilities of the weapons systems on there — make it a very effective infantry fighting vehicle."

The US announced it would send dozens of Bradleys to Ukraine in early 2023 amid a push by other NATO countries to surge armored vehicles to the country ahead of a counteroffensive.

The Bradley isn't the only armor the US sent to Ukraine. Kyiv also has 31 Abrams tanks — a fraction of the more than 300 Bradleys it has received as of early July, according to Pentagon data.

Main battle tanks, like the Abrams, have not necessarily been a go-to armor choice for Ukraine and have been used more sparingly in combat. Part of that has to do with inventory, as Kyiv has many more Bradleys than Abrams to expend. Additionally, the battlefield conditions support the idea that a lighter vehicle could be better than something on the heavier side.

The Bradley infantry fighting vehicle is lighter than an Abrams tank by roughly 40 tons. It handles off-road action well and doesn't usually get "bogged down in the mud" as easily, explained the former US infantry officer. They added that there's "a certain amount of mobility that comes into play there."

"The Bradley is perhaps a bit more maneuverable than a main battle tank," said the former officer, who had experience with the IFV during their service. "It's taller than one, which makes it a pretty good target, but it's more compact and can sort of maneuver through the terrain a little more agilely."

In Ukraine, the battlefield is different than what US weapons saw in the Middle East. The skies are contested, preventing air cover for armored operations, and unmanned aerial vehicles, along with anti-tank infantry equipped with anti-tank missiles and helicopters equipped with the same, are now threatening tanks like never before. Such an environment could favor lighter, faster, more maneuverable alternatives.

Additionally, while the powerful, heavily armored Abrams was built to kill other tanks, those battles are being seen fairly infrequently. This top tank was also built for armored breakthroughs, but massed armored assaults aren't really happening.

The Bradley can hold its own in a tank fight. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said previously that the Bradley isn't a tank, but it is a "tank killer," as well as an effective tool against infantry. Ukraine has used these to target bunkers, exposed infantry, machine gun nets, and other targets beyond armor

Bradleys can be easier to recover, repair, and maintain, offer maneuverability and mobility, deliver sufficient combat capability and crew protection, and are not considered as high value as the Abrams from a targeting perspective. Some Abrams crews have said the tanks make them the "number one target."

Since the first Bradleys arrived on the battlefield more than a year ago, Ukrainian soldiers have praised the vehicle for its role in combat, applauding its firepower and survivability and commending it for being an upgrade over the Soviet-era systems they were using beforehand, such as the BMP.

In an interview last fall, a Bradley crew from the 47th Mechanized Brigade called the IFV a "very serious machine," noting that its thermal imager is "very high quality."

While the range may be lacking, "the shrapnel density is crazy, the firepower density is just insane," one soldier said. "Target acquisition takes seconds, just seconds. At night, this machine is absolutely priceless, simply invaluable. You capture targets much faster. Visibility is better than during the day."

Videos shared by Ukraine's military, as well as open-source intelligence (OSINT) accounts, have documented multiple instances of Bradleys going up against Russian armored vehicles — and even Russia's prized T-90M tanks — in head-to-head fights, with the Bradleys holding their own or overpowering enemies.

Other videos have shown the American-made armored vehicles engaging drones and unleashing withering chain-gun fire on Russian infantry positions. And on defense, these vehicles have taken direct hits or run over mines, and the crews have survived.

Although the footage captures just a fraction of what is happening on the battlefield, it builds a strong case for the fighting vehicle's impact in the war.

Ukraine is using it in a light tank role

Much of the Bradleys' success comes down to how the Ukrainians are using them. Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that based on footage seen from the war, it is apparent that Ukraine is operating the Bradley as if it were a tank rather than an armored vehicle or transport.

"There's no question that the Ukrainians seem to be using it differently from the way the US Army would use it. They're using it much more in a scouting role, in a light tank role, than as an infantry fighting vehicle," he said, looking at open-source intel.

The US tends to operate its Bradleys in groups, with the vehicles working together with its Abrams. The armor is supported by infantry and air cover. Ukraine's limited arsenal of main battle tanks and insufficient airpower have led it to use its Bradleys differently. Drones and mines, too, have led to changes, with Ukraine usually sending only one or two out at a time.

The versatility of the Bradley fighting vehicle allows Ukraine to use it in whatever function is most useful in a given moment. They can transport troops, engage in battle on the front line, or scout out Russian positions miles away.

The Bradley was designed to be able to keep up with the Abrams across varying terrains. On the front lines in Ukraine, Cancian explained, the Bradley can scout, hide in the dense tree lines, and race across wide fields of mud and dirt.

Though it's using them differently than the US does, Ukraine has adapted quickly to the Bradleys and is using them well.

"What's impressed me is how quickly the crews have come up to speed on fighting the Bradley. The performance of the vehicle itself hasn't surprised me. It hasn't underwhelmed me either — it's what I would expect from well-trained crews," the former infantry officer said.

"You can't just jump into a Bradley and go into a battle and expect to be effective," they added.

This all adds weight to a narrative that has come to define Kyiv's side of the war for over two years now: the Ukrainians, often low on weapons or struggling to make ends meet, are scrappy fighters, fighting in ways Western armies like the US wouldn't. The Bradleys is one example of that, Cancian said, showing what Ukraine can do despite the odds.

Bradleys are good but not unbeatable

Though celebrated for their effectiveness, these battle-hardened vehicles are far from invincible, and many of them have fallen victim to Russian threats like artillery, mines, and drones.

So far, Ukraine has lost at least 90 of its Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, according to the open-source intelligence site Oryx, which uses visual confirmation to track war losses on both sides.

When the US employed the Bradleys in Afghanistan and Iraq, improvised explosive devices dealt damage to their vulnerable undercarriage.

That contributed to growing concerns about the future role of the vehicle, which is now set to be phased out with the Army's new XM30 Mechanized Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacing it in the coming years. A prototype of the vehicle is set to be delivered in late 2024. Cancian said it has likely been a surprise that the Bradley has done so well in Ukraine given the Army's concerns about its vulnerability.

There are advantages to using the Bradley over the Abrams or any other main battle tank for certain missions, but it remains unclear if Ukraine would be relying so heavily on Bradleys if it had received more Abrams tanks from the US, which would then allow them to employ the tanks more liberally on the battlefield.

Massed armor can be tremendously effective for offensive armored breakthroughs, but without certain force multipliers, such as airpower, Ukraine might be unable to leverage its armor to its full potential. It faced these challenges during last year's counteroffensive, which saw Ukraine's newly acquired Western main battle tanks stumble. F-16s are on their way, creating new possibilities, but their effectiveness remains to be seen.

For now, Ukraine's army is on defense, and the US hasn't offered any additional Abrams to supplement the ones already received. The Bradleys, though, remain in heavy use by the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, a group that's seen practically non-stop fighting for a year. A US aid package earlier this year included more Bradleys to the brigade.