Joe Biden will send Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine

On Thursday Bloomberg reported The Biden administration was considering Sending Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (BIV) to Ukraine He could transfer the most heavily armored and heavily armed fighting vehicle designed by Western countries to Ukraine.

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A crew of three operates each Bradley, which can transport a squad of six or seven soldiers depending on its model. The Bradley can be used to destroy infantry and light armored vehicle using 25-millimeter cannons that fire quickly and a machinegun. They also have the ability to snipe distant tanks with a TOW anti-tank missile rocket launcher. Omar Bradley, World War II general, was the Bradley’s creator. He entered U.S. service in the 1980s with two basic, but very similar, variants of the M2, which was used by infantry units, and the M3, which was used by cavalry/scout formations.

Let’s consider a few key factors that will weigh in Washington’s ultimate decision.

NATO and the U.S. have concerns about Ukraine getting tanks. The Bradley is the next best option.

Washington and NATO allies fear that some weapons could be too provocative for Ukraine, and incite Putin to escalate. These weapons are particularly relevant to jet fighters Western-built main battle tanks. This policy is odd because NATO has provided plenty of advanced artillery systems Ukraine, which are more likely to cause Russian losses than tanks; air defense systems They are also more expensive and more sophisticated.

Nonetheless, Ukraine wants to continue launching offensives to liberate territory—and offensives require lots of well-protected fighting vehicles.

The Bradley is an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)— designed to transport troops into combat and provide anti-personnel and anti-vehicle fire support while doing so. The Bradley is able to perform a more aggressive combat role that the. hundreds of lightly-armed armored personnel carriers NATO donated the M113, VAB and other items to Ukraine.

Yet, Bradly isn’t a main battle tank—it lacks a large cannon and it’s armor isn’t meant to withstand hits from tank guns or powerful anti-tank missiles. But it’s more or less the next best thing. And Ukraine and Russia both already use lots of infantry fighting vehicles—mostly Soviet-era BMP tracked IFVs.

There are thousands more available at the Pentagon.

Bradleys aren’t cheap, priced at roughly $3.2 million per vehicle by 2000. However, the U.S. paid approximately 6,500 Bradleys in 2000. More than a quarter of these Bradleys are now out of use by Army and National Guard units (see below).

Bradley in Operational Units and Storage*
	Number of operational units	Storage estimates
M2 Infantry Fighting Car	2,500	2,000
M3 Cavalry Fighting vehicle	1,200	800
M73A3 Fire Support vehicle (for artillery detection)	334
Figures from IISS’s The Military Balance 2021

 

Therefore, the Army can give away hundreds of Bradleys while not reducing capability from operational units. In 2022, they received new M2A4 vehicles with upgraded powertrains and suspensions. Survivability improvements and digitized systems were also included in their purchase. It plans to replace them long-term with an optionally-manned successor.

Of course, any earlier M2A1 and M2A2 in storage lack key survivability upgrades, and so it’s possible the Pentagon would spend some money upgrading them before donating them.

It’s a lot tougher (and heavier) than Ukraine and Russia’s BMP fighting vehicles.

The BMP-2 fighting vehicles used widely by Ukraine and Russia weigh 15.8 tons—while a Bradley weighs twice as much at 33 tons in later models! The reason for this difference is largely due to stronger armor. Side and rear armor can be broken through on BMPS, for instance. heavy machine gun rounds Close-range, Bradley is protected from such weapons from all angles.

Furthermore, the Bradley’s smaller 25-millimeter cannon can easily blast through a BMP’s frontal armor, while the BMP’s 30-millimeter gun struggle against the Bradley’s front plate. That said, Russia’s later BMP-3 model The Bradley is outgunned by the Bradley because it has an extra 100-millimeter gun.

Bradleys are also the only U.S. armored vehicle to bolt-on explosive reactive armor bricks, which can be used to defeat common anti-tank weapons, such as rocket propelled grenades.

It has superior sensors, including passive thermal sights that can be used to fight night-fighting, which are not available in all modernized BMPs.

It also has long-range missiles that can destroy tanks.

Like BMPs, Bradleys carry long-distance missiles to defend against tanks—specifically the BGM-71 TOWThis missile has a range of over 2 miles and can be used to strike at fortified areas, heavy weapons teams and supply trucks. The newer TOW missiles have wireless command links, top-attack munition and top-attack munitions. These features may increase the chances of defeating reactive armor and active protection systems for Russian tanks. At least 1,500 US infantry TOW missiles have already been delivered to Ukraine, with a few being used in combat.

Bradleys are not without their faults.

The Bradley’s belly armor wasn’t designed for mine-resistance, so it remains relatively vulnerable to mines and improvised explosive devices despite its heavy armor. Bradleys cannot carry large squads of six to seven dismounted soldiers, just like BMPs.

Although Bradleys have gained several tons in weight, many still use the same 500-horsepower diesel engines. That means up-armored Bradleys are underpowered and stress their power train and suspensions—except for brand-new M2A4s.

It would be a heavy logistical burden.

Because Bradleys are so much heavier than Ukraine’s BMPs, they would impose a greater logistical burden and will require more intensive support structures to keep fueled, maintained and repaired in the field than are currently organic to Ukrainian mechanized units.

And it’s not like in the past Soviet armored vehicles donated by NATO to Kyiv, Ukraine’s military has no prior experience operating Bradleys, and would have to set up completely new maintenance, supply and training pipelines to support the new type. That would take months, though Ukraine’s military has so far managed to rush complex new capabilities like HIMARS Surprisingly, you can get into the field so quickly.

The Bradley’s development was so controversial somebody made a comedy movie about it.

Built to satisfy diverging requirements from the U.S. Army’s mechanized infantry and cavalry reconnaissance units, the Bradley took many years and billions of dollars to develop, leading that process to be satirized in the film The Pentagon Wars. However these cinematic hijinks shouldn’t be over-interpreted; Bradley have performed well in combat since the 1991 Gulf War, and their basic design is hardly unusual.

How practical are Bradleys in Ukraine

The U.S. has literally thousands of spare Bradleys it’s not using that it can sign off to Ukraine at little cost. But the logistical and training measures needed to integrate Bradleys into Ukraine’s military and support them in the field, would remain significant. These would require a U.S. transfer on a sufficient scale and over enough time to provide a return on investment.

Ukrainian mechanized brigades with Bradleys would be more resilient to enemy fire, more mobile thanks to better night vision sensors, more likely to identify and destroy enemy vehicles using their own weapons, and more likely if they were deployed. However, its logistical footprint would be much larger.

Bradleys wouldn’t be ‘game changers’—but, if delivered in adequate quantity, could still enhance expand Ukraine’s ground maneuver forces, which need such protected mobility vehicles to recapture Ukrainian territory. So they could eventually contribute to Kyiv’s endgame of driving Russian forces out of Ukraine through a combination of attrition and maneuver.

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