The Russian Defense Ministry has published footage of the destruction of more American-made armor in Ukraine, including unique recordings showing the targeting of a Ukrainian ground forces’ M1 Abrams heavy main battle tank using Russia’s Krasnopol high-precision laser-guided artillery round.
The footage, shot from multiple angles, shows a Krasnopol being fired by a Msta-S 152 mm self-propelled howitzer operated by Tsentr Group of Forces troops, with overhead surveillance systems including an Orlan-30 providing guidance support, and capturing the moment the precision artillery round strikes its targets, including an Abrams MBT.
The second video shows an M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle being targeted by Tsentr Group of Forces FPV drone operators, with the tiny UAV seen lifting off from an operator’s hand with a cumulative explosive projectile attached and flying toward the IFV traveling along a country road somewhere along the front, slamming directly into its turret.
The Krasnopol guided artillery shell has been around since Soviet days, and has received several upgrades in the decades since. The 50 kg round’s high explosive warhead weighs between 6.5 and 11 kg, and the round has an effective firing range of between 20 and 60 km, depending on modification. The base Krasnopol is laser guided, and although the upgraded K155M variant includes GLONASS satellite guidance capability, the high-intensity conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated that in fighting between peer competitors (Russia vs. NATO using their Ukrainian proxy), jamming has rendered many satellite-guided weapons close to useless.
The US deployed 31 monkey model variants of its M1 Abrams main battle tank in Ukraine in late 2023, with at least a third of the fleet knocked out in combat to date. As for the Bradley, over 200 have been sent to Ukraine to date by the US, with 70 or more destroyed, damaged or abandoned in the course of fighting.
Russia’s ability to destroy America and NATO’s top armor has served to debunk a decades-old myth touting the superiority of Western military equipment to its Soviet and Russia’s counterparts.