Sean Spoonts, a U.S. Navy veteran and editor-in-chief of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that he feels the numbers from ISS seem "pretty accurate. That might . Just a few months into the war, analysts noticed a design flaw in Russian tanks that meant a single incoming anti-tank round could explode their ammunition stores. He took out five tanks and three other vehicles in a single day in Donetsk, according to Ukraine. One U.S. Special Operations official monitoring the conflict estimated that around 300 Javelin missiles fired had destroyed 280 vehicles. A BTG has one tank company of ten tanks, and three infantry companies. That figure could not be independently verified. Meanwhile, Russian armor has fared poorly in Ukraine. That makes production slower and means that many factories designed for other types of manufacturing cannot easily make tanks instead. The M1 Abrams entered service in 1980 and currently serves as the main battle tank of the United States Army. One also must be careful about numbers, as both Russian and Ukrainian sources will either under-report or over-report losses for propaganda purposes. As the conflict grinds on, Russia is likely to see its fleet steadily decline in both quantity and quality. The battalion of Russia's 26th Tank Regiment, which is fighting around the city of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, had 10 T-80BV main battle tanks still in "serviceable condition" as of Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook on Sunday. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. These can either directly attack tanks or be used as spotters for artillery. Production elsewhere in the West is similarly slow, leading to a scramble to find old tanks to donate. Artillery, which Stalin termed the God of war, is likely to inflict more casualties than the front-line troops. The T-80 actually is an evolution of the T-64, itself one of the most sophisticated tanks Soviet industry ever produced. This would give a total of 1,600. "Two Russian T-80BV tanks and an uncommon BMP-1AM Basurmanin infantry fighting vehicle were damaged and abandoned with another AFV destroyed by the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade near. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. This includes 967 destroyed tanks, 75 damaged, 59 abandoned and 545 captured. Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked Nato allies for sending the tanks, hailing it as an important step on the path to victory. They weigh 55 tonnes and can reach a top speed of 45mph. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ukrainian authorities for comment. Others have been driven into ditches so that the tracks have come off. Often identical, military hardware was leftover from their time as part of the Soviet Union. the relatively exposed turret top of tanks. Before the invasion, the final estimates from official U.S. sources put the Russian forces at approximately 120 Battalion tactical Groups, or BTGs. Ukraine has destroyed nearly 10% of Russia's tanks, making experts ask: Are tanks over? In as little as 15 seconds, Ukrainian troops. A video posted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence showed the alleged tank strikes: Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 28, 2023. This time, manufacturing might not save it. 2021 Associated Newspapers Limited. This assumes that every BTG is at 100% fighting strength, which has historically never been the case. It made no mention of losses. This would typically include one company with ten BMP tracked infantry vehicles and two with ten BTR wheeled personnel carriers each. So 40 vehicles multiplied by 120 Battalion Tactical Groups would give a total of 4,800 armored fighting vehicles. It is questionable just how effective they would be on the modern battlefield, purely apart from maintenance issues and the question of how many are still able to run. In the early days of the war, the Ukraine military claimed there were morale problems in this Russian tank unit, with Ukraine's General Staff posting on Facebook in March last year that soldiers in the 26th Tank Regiment of the 47th Tank Division were asking to end their contracts to fight in Ukraine. So not only are their combat losses very serious, they are unable to get tanks back into action that suffer mechanical breakdowns in the field. A BTG is a Russian battlegroup able to operate independently, a self-contained combined arms force with tanks, infantry, artillery, air defense as well as its own logistics, maintenance and support facilities. How a chatbot has turned Ukrainian civilians into digital resistance fighters. On March 8 they put the Russian losses at 8% to 10% of military assets. By Sunday they put the total vehicle losses at 184 tanks and over 380 other armored vehicles (a total of 564). Moscow last released figures on March 25, when a general told state media that 1,351 soldiers had been killed and 3,825 had been wounded. Russia is not alone in these problems. Go back to Roman times and you find that while on paper a Legion had 5,000 men, by Julius Caesars time the actual number was more like 3,500. Oryx, an open-source intelligence blog, has documented 1,700 losses. As pointed out by many military experts, the main problem appears to be Russia's inability to supply and maintain its stockpile of hardware suitably. However, Ukraine's ability to mount such counteroffensives "likely rests heavily on the speed and scale at which the West provides it the necessary materiel, particularly tanks and armored vehicles," the ISW wrote. Not as long as Ukraine, population 44 million, possesses reserves of human capitaland as long as the Ukrainians remain united in the defense of their homeland. So far, most fighting vehicles we've seen in action are poorly maintained, and supply lines appear to be stretched to breaking point. This has little military effect but causes horrendous civilian casualties and is aimed at breaking Ukrainian morale without too many Russian losses. The BTG also has its own air defense assets, in the form of three personnel carriers carrying teams with man-portable missiles, plus two batteries of three mobile surface-to-air missile launchers with their attendant radar and control vehicles. The Ukrainians supply lines are contained inside their own defensive perimeter rather than strung out along unguarded highways. Their commander, Ihor, joked: "The whole world is with Ukraine. Ukraine's armed forces say Russia has lost more than 680 tanks. "Some of those tanks were abandoned because they ran out of fuel. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP) (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images). The MOD also noted that Putin recently told his country's defense industry to ramp up production to support the war in Ukraine. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. This venture might show us a way to put them to use. Reuters said it had confirmed that . Ukraines only tank factory, near Kharkiv, was destroyed early in the war. How much is down to Russian incompetence? Heres what the Ukrainian military can expect from the Challenger 2s, Leopard 2s and M1 Abrams tanks. In less than one week. Nowadays, the Russian army operates through Battalion Tactical Groups (BTGs), which are self-contained combat units made up of tanks, infantry and artillery. During the fighting, the paratrooper took out the five tanks, as well as three infantry fighting vehicles known as BMPs. Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had previously been resistant due to concerns that it might escalate the war. Ukraine has lost at least 74 tanksdestroyed or capturedsince Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23. So the actual number of armored vehicles in the field may be somewhat less than the theoretical number. The bigger question was how many personnel remain tasked with repairing and maintaining the tanks, since if there aren't enough people doing these jobs, then "operational tanks just become steadily more unserviceable, whether or not they get hit by enemy fire," he added. Military experts put the losses down. This would mean Ukraine has captured or destroyed between 151 . There are plenty of other armored fighting vehicles, ranging from reconnaissance vehicles to self-propelled guns and infantry carriers. 2023 BBC. 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The latest developments come as Ukraine is waging a counteroffensive to retake the southern Kherson region, which was seized by Russia in March. It is highly likely that many Russian tank crews lack the training to maintain ERA, leading to either poor fitting of the explosive elements, or it being left off entirely. TB2, have been to excellent use by Ukrainian forces. But there was pressure from both within the US and internationally for the administration to join the show of support for Ukraine, with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell among those pressing President Joe Biden to provide more tanks and weapons to help Ukraine win this war. Prof O'Brien says a lack of Russian air patrols means Ukrainian troops have found it easy to get into positions to ambush Russian tank columns. Saying that this is more than 8% of Russian forces suggests they believe the grand total is much less than 10,000. The U.S. Army takes as a rule of thumb that 30% losses are enough to effectively destroy a BTG, but commanders will rotate units and take them out of the line of battle to prevent any given BTG falling apart where possible. The Leopard 2 is a German-made main battle tank that first came into service in 1979. Russia Is Still Using 60-Year-Old Tanks in Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Defense estimated that Russia was losing about 50 vehicles per day. We have already seen the Russian response. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. That might sound like a large amount, but the Russian Federation has access to 12,240 battle tanks. Many of those tanks the Ukrainians have seized were just sitting there, out of gas, their crews having fled. 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