Article Summary: The M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) has proven itself as one of Ukraine’s most effective weapons against Russian forces. Unlike the limited deployment of M1 Abrams tanks, Ukraine has received over 300 Bradleys, significantly impacting frontline battles.
Key Point #1 – Equipped with reactive armor and a deadly 25mm Bushmaster chaingun, the Bradley excels at taking down Russian armored columns and disrupting enemy offensives. Its speed, durability, and firepower have made it a feared adversary, with reports of Russian troops dreading encounters with the IFV.
Key Point #2 – As Ukraine continues to defend its territory, the Bradley remains a key asset in the fight for survival.
Meet the M2 Bradley: The Game-Changer in Ukraine’s War Against Russia
The M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) proves to be one of the real battlefield successes for Ukraine in its war against the ongoing Russian invasion.
Unlike the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) that was provided to Ukraine in little more than symbolic numbers, the M2 is more widely deployed—and in more than one unit. Abrams tanks were largely confined only to the 47th Mechanized Brigade.
In contrast, the Defense Department shipped Ukraine more than 300 M2s. In the 36 months since Russia invaded and began devastating cities, Ukrainian forces have lost what is estimated to be around 64 of the M2s.
Six of them were captured fairly intact by the Russians, and several others were damaged in battle, some of which have subsequently been repaired.
The total number of Bradleys operating on the Ukraine side is now thought to be about 200 vehicles. This is adequate to equip six battalions, allowing that some number need to be set aside for training units.
The M2 Bradley In Combat
In combat, the M2 is considered to be the best IFV involved in the fighting. It has proven to be particularly useful in those situations where the Russians send wave after wave of units in a fashion reminiscent of the suicidal Japanese banzai charges that became famous in Douglas MacArthur’s “island-hopping” campaign in the WWII Pacific Theater.
The Russians’ banzai tactics have been shown to have a specific rhythm to them. Typically, they send several assault groups that attack in quick succession. “Due to a [Ukrainian] ammunition shortage, a segment of the assault group reaches the target and engages in combat,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies (CDS) explained. “Concurrently, another assault group swiftly moves towards the battle area.”
“This tactic allows for a continuous build-up of effort,” according to CDS.
But this build-up effort is only successful if the Ukrainians do not take any direct action to disrupt this activity. The only way to accomplish this is “by killing the Russians as fast as they arrive,” said a report on how the M2 has been such an important asset on the battlefield in performing that very role.
The 30-ton Bradley with the add-on reactive armor that has been provided to units with the this IFV, its superior speed, and most of all—an extremely accurate Bushmaster 242 25 mm chaingun—has been the key.
As the report read, the M2 is the asset that is “just the thing for getting inside the Russians’ battle-rhythm.”
The Chaingun
In January 2024, the Ukraine MoD posted video footage of one of the Bradleys with the 47th Mechanized firing relentlessly on a Russian T-90M tank with this 25mm chaingun. The footage shows an explosion of sparks from the Russian tank and eventually the tank is brought to a standstill, what in military parlance is known as a “mobility kill.”
Of all the front-line assets donated to Ukraine during the war, most military observers and Ukraine military officials say the Bradleys have made a substantial impact on the front line, specifically with the 47th which has been engaged in some of the most deadly and high-intensity fighting of the war.
The 25mm chain gun on the Bradley is “tearing apart Russian armored columns,” said Daniel Rice, who was formerly a special adviser to Ukraine’s then-lead commander, General Valery Zaluzhny. According to one field commander with the 47th, Russian soldiers inside of Moscow’s tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are literally “afraid” to launch operations “when they know that a Bradley will be against them.”
Engineers with the 116th Brigade Engineer Battalion conduct M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicle gunnery qualification on March 27, 2018, Orchard Combat Training Center, south of Boise, Idaho. Combat engineers with the 116th BEB trained through gunnery table XII, evaluating their ability to execute collective platoon-level tasks in a tactical live-fire environment; including integrating dismounted soldiers with their assigned BFV. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by 1LT Robert Barney)
The range of the chaingun is about 1.2 miles, but its rate of fire reaches an eye-watering 200 rounds per minute. This made the M2 a critical battlefield element in last summer’s incursion by Ukrainian forces into the Russian Kursk region.
But it is also not just the chaingun that makes the difference, said a retired US Army armor commander very familiar with the Bradley design who spoke to 19FortyFive.
“One of the prime design drivers for both the M2 and the M1 Abrams was prioritizing the survivability of the crew – making these vehicles so armorized that the soldiers inside would survive no matter what. That is not only great for morale, but it gives that crew the confidence they need to conduct aggressive offensive operations of the kind that have made the difference in Ukraine.”
The Bradley Fighting Vehicle cuts loose several rounds from the 25mm main gun on the orchard Combat Training Center Range.
Soldiers completed training this week of the Bradley Commanders Course with the 204th Regional Training Institute, (RTI), of the Idaho Army National Guard on Gowen Field. The course is designed to train active duty, reserve and national guard officers and non-commissioned officers in combat critical M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Commander Skills. Field exercises were conducted on the newest Range 10, the Digital Air Ground Integrated Range (DAGIR), on the Orchard Combat Training Center grounds.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
