The Bradley infantry-fighting vehicle has won iconic status among Ukrainian troops for its ability to protect them against drones, mines and antitank weapons. It is a 40-year-old troop carrier with thick armor and a gun like a buzz saw that despite its age turned out to be well adapted to Ukraine’s battlefield. The agility of the Bradley and some other IFVs is prized in a war where the proliferation of drones means vehicles can be spotted and targeted within minutes. And a unit in the 47th Mechanized Brigade had seven Bradleys, and in eight months of being hit by drones, antitank weapons and mines none of them were totaled. One 1986-built Bradley was targeted by seven explosive drones. It still survived.Ukrainian Pvt. Viktor Khamets has tattooed on his arm an image of one of the great loves of his life: the Bradley troop carrier that saved it.
One of the standout Western-provided vehicles in Ukraine is a 40-year-old troop carrier with thick armor and a gun like a buzz saw that despite its age turned out to be well adapted to Ukraine’s battlefield.
The Bradley infantry-fighting vehicle has won iconic status among Ukrainian troops for its ability to protect them against drones, mines and antitank weapons.
Such high regard shows how military operators become emotionally attached to a vehicle that shields them from danger, but also how these IFVs have come into their own in Ukraine. In this war, both sides have needed highly mobile vehicles that can quickly deposit troops and protect them from the plethora of drones that have added an extra layer of risk for infantry. Meanwhile, the Bradley’s cannon has helped attack Russian positions at a time when tanks have had less success in their traditional roles.
Bradleys are no longer being produced, but the market for their newer peers has become a competitive one, as countries, particularly in Europe, rush to make orders. As drones become increasingly deadly, their makers have also had to adapt these vehicles.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, the U.S. sent over 300 Bradleys. Many were decades old and some arrived in such poor condition they needed to be refitted.
But the vehicle soon proved its worth. “It saved my life,” said Khamets, the driver mechanic of a Bradley with the 2nd mechanized brigade. In June last year, his Bradley was hit by an explosive drone and a munition fired from a helicopter. The crew survived inside a vehicle they had named Mavka, after a mythical Ukrainian forest creature. Mavka is now inked on Khamets’s arm.
On a summer visit near the eastern front, Ukrainian soldiers spoke of the Bradley’s ability to seemingly take almost any hit.
Sgt. Oleksiy Yanyshpilsky’s unit in the 47th mechanized brigade had seven Bradleys, and in eight months of being hit by drones, antitank weapons and mines none of them were totaled. On one mission, Yanyshpilsky’s own 1986-built Bradley was targeted by seven explosive drones. It still survived. Sgt. Mykhaylo Kotsyurba, from a separate brigade, once saw a Bradley next to him take a direct hit from a Russian Grad rocket.
“This Bradley is gone,” he said he remembers thinking as he looked at a field still shrouded in smoke. “But the smog cleared and the Bradley kept moving.”
In contrast, Ukrainian operators complain about the Russian-made IFVs they inherited and the U.S.-donated Abrams tanks. Lt. Gen. Ross Coffman of the U.S. Army says that IFVs, and how well they are protected, are essential because they deliver an army’s most “precious resource”—its infantry—to battle. An IFV such as a Bradley is typically better protected than other types of armored troop carriers.
Coffman, who served in Bradleys and Abramses in Iraq, said it isn’t unusual for U.S. operators to also form a tight bond with their vehicle.
The Bradley weighs almost 28 tons, has a three-person crew, can carry six soldiers and is armed with a 25-millimeter cannon and, often, an antitank missile launcher. The U.S. Abrams tank can weigh more than 70 tons and consumes large amounts of fuel, which gives it a long logistics tail.
“This war is about maneuvers, you have to be faster and a little bit more wise than the enemy,” said Yanyshpilsky, commenting that his 1986-built Bradley was more nimble than other vehicles. The agility of the Bradley and some other IFVs is prized in a war where the proliferation of drones means vehicles can be spotted and targeted within minutes. To be sure, the infantry-fighting vehicle and tank serve different roles.
“But IFVs like Bradley have utility in both offensive and defensive operations,” said Nicholas Drummond, a former British army officer who runs a defense-industry consulting firm. The Bradley is often used to target Russian positions and has even been filmed destroying enemy tanks.
“In Ukraine, the IFV has come into its own,” Drummond said. Still, many Bradleys have been damaged and destroyed. For instance, some 65% of Ukraine’s fleet of Bradleys were out of operation at one stage in May, according to a Ukrainian government report seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Many will have been repaired and brought back to the front line. Kotsyurba’s Bradley once hit a mine but three days later was back in action. Ukrainian mechanics have often preferred older vehicles to more complex modern ones, because they are easier to fix at a time when the country lacks equipment.
In June last year, Kotsyurba suffered concussion, burns and nerve damage in his arm and finger when the Bradley he drove was destroyed by a Russian antitank missile. His injuries have forced him to move into a different military role. But Kotsyurba still thinks the 40-year-old Bradley is the “best vehicle in the world,” because on that day it saved the lives of its crew and the troops it was carrying. Coffman, of the U.S. Army Futures Command, which looks at ways to equip and transform the Army, said the Bradley’s ability to protect has been exceptional in Ukraine but it is time for the U.S. to move to the next generation of IFV.
The Pentagon has asked for a replacement that is lighter, has more firepower and is better protected than the Bradley. The U.S. is also looking for hybrid ways to fuel these gas-hungry vehicles.
Coffman said a big difference will be its so-called open-systems architecture, in which it is built in a modular way so that its software and hardware, from guns to engines, are easy to swap out and so upgrade. Currently, the Bradley would take three to five years to upgrade and modernize, and the Army wants that to be just over a year.
Two companies, General Dynamics and Germany’s Rheinmetall, are currently competing to replace it as the U.S.’s main IFV. The Army will continue to operate one unit of Bradleys, which have been refurbished. That includes adding the Israeli-made Iron Fist protection system, which shoots out small explosive munitions when it detects airborne threats. The vehicle’s maker, the American subsidiary of the U.K.’s BAE Systems, this month announced a contract to upgrade a further 200 for the army.
Makers of IFVs are looking at how to better protect them from drones.
The CV90, a different IFV made by BAE Systems, now carries shells programmed to burst in the air close to drones, showering the area with some 400 tungsten pellets to destroy them or knock them from their path. An infantry-fighting vehicle can carry over 400 rounds, against the 30 to 40 a tank would carry, so it has more ammunition to expend on drones.
Ukrainian Bradleys are now equipped with electronic-warfare devices, which down drones by interrupting their signals.
The CV90 has become a big business for BAE Systems. Sales of the vehicle helped drive profit in the first half of this year, and last year the company signed a $2.2 billion contract to sell 246 of them to the Czech Republic. BAE currently has contracts in place to make more than 1,700 CV90s. South Korea’s Hanwha and Germany’s Rheinmetall have also talked extensively of increased opportunities for the IFVs they produce.
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