1 year ago
69
The fog of war is thick. Ukraine has maintained strict operational security (OpSec), while Russia keeps replaying that one failed Ukrainian assault, the one in which they lost a Leopard 2 battle tank and up to 10 M2 Bradleys infantry fighting vehicles.
New video from the Ukrainian side shows that the Western gear did their job—the crews were saved.
With subpar Soviet gear, infantry ride on the roof of the vehicle, exposed to shrapnel from artillery and mine blasts. Not so with the good stuff we’ve been sending. An American C-17 cargo aircraft can carry three Bradleys at once, and the U.S. has 223 of them. With thousands more in storage and in the process of being phased out from active service, the United States has plenty more to replenish any Ukrainian losses.
You know what the U.S. can’t send over on C-17s? Trained and experienced Ukrainian soldiers. The gear is doing what it’s supposed to do—protect lives—so they can live to fight another day, ever wiser.
Losses are certainly to be expected. Heavy losses. This gear wasn’t sent to sit in warehouses and look menacing. It was sent to be used, against a near-peer opponent with the tools to destroy those vehicles. But given other thinner lines across the front, why did Ukraine decide to hit Russia at its most fortified point?
