The crew of the Ukrainian M1A1SA Abrams tank spoke about their experience of being ambushed by fiber optic FPV drones and the effectiveness of anti-drone defense.
A corresponding interview with the tankers was prepared by American journalists Rob Lee and Michael Kofman.
On December 18, the Russian Ministry of Defense released footage of a Ukrainian tank that was ambushed while traveling on the roads of the Kursk region.
The combat vehicle was hit numerous times by fiber optic FPV drones in the engine compartment and a vulnerable area under the left side of the turret, immobilizing it.
A tank commander from the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade said that his vehicle had been hit twice within two minutes. However, apart from contusions, the entire crew survived and managed to return to their positions unharmed.
“Between four and six hits within like 2 minutes. I believe that at least one more got stuck in the net. Two more missed several minutes before,” he said.
The tanker speculates that one of the strikes hit the engine, immobilizing them. The entire time the crew was inside, no drone was able to penetrate the armor and hit the crew in the turret or hull, despite the fact that the Russian operators had time to do so.
After the crew abandoned the vehicle, “Russian FPV crews hit the tank with several more FPVs… but it was not destroyed and can still be saved,” the commander said.
The commander and his crew returned to their unit on foot.
“We could not evacuate because the FPVs were coming one after another. When I finally could hear no sound, we just jumped out of the tank and ran to a treeline. They were tracking us, so a mortar started working with some more drones, but we crawled away through the treeline. In the end, in a spot still under FPV control, our company commander rushed in and took us away,” he said.
The key to saving the crew
The tank commander owes his life and the crew’s survival to the Abrams’ sophisticated design with a separate ammunition compartment and knockout panels, which allows for survival in the event of an ammunition detonation. He also emphasized the importance of dynamic protection and anti-drone nets on the turret.
“Without the additional ERA and ‘cope netting’ on the top of the turret, we would have been smashed and surely dead by now without any chance,” said the tank commander.
The crew developed the additional protection on their own based on the experience of previous hits on this type of tank. A set of additional Kontakt-1 ERA on turret, which covered even the roof, and folding nets were installed with the permission of the command.
He added that the crew was in love with the tank and was extremely grateful to the United States. At the same time, he noted that if the U.S. had provided the tanks with full sets of U.S. ARAT reactive protection, it would have made them more secure.
According to him, the additional 2-3 tons of weight for the M1A1Sa due to the additional protection was not a significant problem.
The tank commander also said that during the training, his crew had received “luxurious fire training” from American instructors – about 100 shots for each gunner.
However, the U.S. military was completely unaware of the current threats on the battlefield and is still poorly versed in this issue.
“E.g. they are shocked that Russians can see us at night with thermal-vision recon drones (we were taught that we would be haunting the Russians who are blind at night), they do not understand at all the threat posed by the FPVs,” he said.
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