Video of Russian drone attacking US-made Abrams tank
(Baonghean.vn) - A video recording the destruction of a NATO-supplied tank for Ukraine appeared on Russian social media on May 7. The tank was initially identified as a German-made Leopard tank, then confirmed to be an American-made Abrams tank.
Only 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks were delivered to Ukraine at the end of last year. By mid-April, five had been confirmed destroyed. The latest video brings the total number of destroyed tanks to seven.
RT reported that thermal camera footage taken by scouts from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic shows a drone in first-person view (FPV) chasing the tank along a road before striking the rear of the turret.
The perspective then switches to an observation drone, recording another attack on the tank's occupants as they attempt to escape the burning vehicle.
According to Russia's open-source intelligence organization Rybar, the attack took place on the Avdeevka front.
Rybar analysts find it puzzling that the Ukrainian armed forces have not even attempted to modify NATO-supplied tanks with field modifications to protect against UAV attacks.
The new footage comes just three days after the Russian Defense Ministry released color footage of another Abrams and a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) being destroyed, also near Avdeevka. The town, which had been heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military since 2014, was seized by Russian forces in February.
One of the Abrams tanks destroyed on the Avdeevka front was captured by the Russian military and brought back to Moscow as a trophy ahead of the May 9 Victory Day celebrations. The Russian military also released a video showing the tank being destroyed by an anti-tank guided missile.
Long considered one of the best armored tanks in the world, the Abrams is proving vulnerable to a range of Russian weapons. The New York Times recently lamented the fact that $500 drones can easily destroy $10 million armored vehicles.
