A US-supplied Abrams tank completely burned out after it was hit by a first-person view (FPV) drone in the Avdeyevka region in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a Russian drone operator has said, commenting on his experience dealing with heavy Western equipment.
“The ‘birdie’ [FPV-drone] went on an on-call flight, carrying a thermal camera. I saw a warm point that stood for some moving equipment. When I [the drone] flew closer [to the point], I realized that it was a tank. Clearly, a big one. So I slowly snuck up to it, dove in, and it just went up in flames from a small projectile,” the operator said.
He added that it took some time for the other Russian soldiers to realize what the exact tank that had just been destroyed was. At first, they thought it was a German-made Leopard main battle tank, but after asking the specialists, they found out that it actually was a US-made Abrams tank.
Russian specialists are very well aware of all the weaknesses in foreign equipment and constantly study trophy samples, the operator also noted.