According to the Washington Post with reference to senior U.S. defense official said.
At the same time data from Oryx, a military analysis site that counts losses it has visually confirmed, shows that a couple dozen more have been damaged to varying degrees. Many have been fixed and returned to the battlefield. Some must be sent to Poland for more extensive repairs.
Read more: Ukraine’s Defense Official Says On What A Factor Makes American M2 Bradley IFV Valuable for Ukrainian Warriors (Video)
The 47th Brigade, the only unit known to have received the Bradleys, was set to get 99 before the start of the counteroffensive, according to leaked U.S. intelligence documents. The United States has committed 190 Bradleys overall, with more than half delivered to operational units in Ukraine, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Losses of equipment were expected — and have not rattled Ukrainian commanders who said any hopes that the new weaponry would overwhelm the Russians were misplaced. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s military chief, said Kyiv didn’t get the vehicles to ride them in parades, and on the battlefield, they’re targets. “Yes, we lose them. Not much, let’s say, but there are losses. You can’t get away from that,” he said.
“It’s a normal phenomenon,” Zaluzhny said. “Don’t treat the Leopard as a panacea — that a battalion of Leopards will decide the outcome of this war. Why all of a sudden? Who’s the one who decided that it’s going to solve it?”
But even amid the early damage, Ukrainian troops have experienced the benefits of the new equipment. In the biggest plus, soldiers said, the Bradley protects everyone inside — typically, soldiers suffer just minor injuries if the vehicle hits an antitank mine, for example. Each Bradley is designed to carry a three-person crew and six soldiers as passengers.
The fighting vehicles were meant to be used in a strategy called combined arms, in which infantry, armor and aviation units work in concert to protect one another and inflict maximum violence. Ukrainian troops received U.S.-led combined arms training in Germany to shed Soviet-era habits of units operating in a vacuum without close coordination.
Ukrainian units have in many cases used the Bradleys as part of that philosophy, the senior U.S. defense official said. But there are anecdotal reports to the contrary, too. Ukraine also still does not have extensive air capabilities.
In some cases, Ukrainian units are “just not using them to their fullest potential with all their other assets that they have available,” the official said.
Read more: The First Two Battalions of M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles Left for Ukraine Last Week
