How would Bradley IFV do against tanks? (in most situations)

Bradley infantry fighting vehicle is as its name says not a tank but a vehicle meant to hold troops around the battlefield and provide fire support however there were instances in the past where Bradley's held their own against tanks notably the recent Ukraine video against the Russian t90m but also in 1991 where us Bradley's won against Iraqi tanks so yeah if everything is Right Bradley's can more than hold their own but how would Bradley's Fair against tanks regularly that depends on many variables and this video will explore just those How likely is it that Bradley's win against tanks [Music] consistently hey what is this a cute of plushy well I guess I could use a nitant come here little fella I'll take you home and you to can take your own of agitant available at crowdmade store yep we made a of plushy if you want one for yourself or as a gift do check out our crowdmade store the link is available Below in the video description it's not too small not too big perfect for your desk or your shelf next to your military history books or you can give it away we've made it as low cost as humanly possible which is very hard when you're Contracting very small production r well go ahead and treat [Music] yourself the Bradley is a combat vehicle that trades armor for internal space and to an extent for Firepower armor wise it can't stand up to even 1960s tank CR let alone anything newer that being said around that penetrates a vehicle doesn't have to destroy it or even kill most people aboard there were examples from 1991 Iraq where Abrams has shot Bradley's on accident yet most crew members survived even without serious injuries but Bradley's main defense is usually to stay away from the enemy if a Bradley is hit by a tankr its 30 something mm worth of Base armor frontally is not going to do a thing Bradley today often also use explosive reactive armor tiles but those were primarily designed to defeat RPG class shaped Warheads a secondary role of those era tiles and Bradley is to hold their own against a 30 mm autoc Cannon round which offers several times less penetration than a tank's kinetic anti-tank Dart Bradley in 1991 didn't use additional era armor blocks those had no chance of shrugging off aead so one could say that against certain old tanks today's Bradley might have a slightly higher chance of not getting penetrated when hit at certain favorable angles what Bradley can do against certain tanks in certain situations is to spot the tank before being spotted targeted and engage it with its tow anti-tank guided missile from a distance usually from enough of a distance that the tank would rarely be able to spot the threat in time and fire back the tow missile launch produces little smoke and at over 3 km most tank Crews will not spot the threat most of the time so even with the 202 missile flight time the Bradley should still be safe but that's all if the tank is not alerted tow missile is very potent against tanks with penetration usually estimated at around 1,000 mm of Steel for head-on impact variants do a top attack variant targeting the Tank's thin roof armor is also used those are often lethal even against most modern tanks out there so the question is perhaps not whether the toe missile will penetrate the tank but whether it will hit due to Target moving obstacles and possible smoke and whether it will do enough damage depending on where exactly it hits though again that can be said for any weapon so a single missile fired may not result in the enemy tank being neutralized the broad least have two tow missiles ready to be fired issue is given that the missile in Flight is Guided by the Bradley that the second missile is fired only after the first one completes its run so for the newer longer range tow missiles it might take even close to a minute until the second missile hits the target of course it's not unimaginable that even two toe missiles fired at the tank do not result in a mission kill maybe they would miss anything crucial on the tank or Miss completely if that happens the Bradley can only back up and hide if spotted from a distance while it has five additional tow missiles stored replenishing the launcher requires a minute and a crew member half exposed to missiles were roughly similar in capabilities both in 1991 Iraq today in Ukraine and in tomorrow's us latest Bradley the remaining big difference will cover our Optical and thermal sites in 1991 us Bradley used the first generational thermal sight for the Gunner the commander had no separate thermal site of his own in 1991 against Iraqi tanks that thermal site was worth a lot as Iraqi tanks back then had nothing comparable here's what the US report on Bradley performance said of its sight after the war Cru were able to distinguish between friendly and enemy Vehicles up to, 1500 to 2,000 M that was at night under clear conditions under rainy conditions the identification distance was 500ish M of course Iraqi tanks having no thermal sites at all fared worse at night most were limited to using human eyesight as most didn't even have night vision devices so distance vared greatly due to ambient light could have been under 100 m or several hundred Metter but even then at times well over 10 minutes was needed for the eye to get accustomed to low light a simple gun flash could reset that count for eye adjustment in a battle you don't have that time those few tanks that did have night vision and even infrared illuminators those could recognize targets at half a kilometer to a kilometer away Iraqi tanks didn't have a separate night vision site for the commander so generally individual Bradley in 1991 could see first and shoot first that's on top of us situational awareness Edge where other assets tracked most of Iraqi forces and directed us abrams's and Bradley's to engage them under favorable conditions today in Ukraine Russia deploys a whole range of tanks and Optics a good deal of those tanks have no thermal sight as their old stocks of Tanks put back into service some however have been retrofitted with fairly simple almost commercial grade thermal sites and Russia's best tanks like the modernized t-72s and the t90m used second generation military gr sites prior to 2014 French thermal sensors were put into Russian sites and afterwards Russia seems to have replicated sense sensor with one of more or less the same capability even mirroring the exact number of detector elements inside the sensor those are decent sensors and there are both better and worse thermal sites in Ukraine's hands now the maker of the French sensor says the recognition of of a tank siiz Target can be made at roughly 4 and2 km away Bradley used by Ukraine is the m2a2 ODS sa variant sa stands for situational awareness it basically digitizes the Bradley using many subsystems of the US M2 A3 including its Advanced second generation thermal site one thing it lacks though is a separate thermal site for the commander though that feature is missing on most Russian tanks as well with the the exception of the newest t90m and a few of the latest t72 modifications the latter use a cheaper near commercial grade thermal sensor but having a separate sensor for the commander on any vehicle is quite important Bradley in Ukraine without one is forced to slew its entire turret around to look for targets tanks which do have independent Commander sites can rotate them around independent of the turret another pair of eyes looking for threats and recognizing them even if it's just at500 m away at night is still quite a boon what Bradley in Ukraine does have is at least an equally capable site for the Gunner while its maker doesn't disclose precise ranges it does say this compared to the first generation sites like in 1991 the second generation increases detection range by 78% and recognition capabilities by 232 per at night using the 1991 figures as a Baseline that suggests the second gen can do tank recognition from 3 and 1/2 to 4 and 1/2 kilm roughly similar to the French site but given the vague starting point claim on first gen Us site and twice the element count on the US sensor it's plausible that Bradley sensor performance is actually even a bit better while Russia doesn't have anything better in active service than the t90m the US does if the newest us Bradley dm2 a4s would meet the best Russian tank they could outside them to use third generation thermal sights for the Gunner and the commander a staring array sight gives a very clear image while exact performance isn't given it's plausibly similar to the French third generation Catherine MP sensor the maker adverti its performance recognition of tank siiz targets possible at 10 to 12 km so in a hypothetical one-on-one fight the latest us Bradley would almost surely detect the latest Russian active service tank first depending on the terrain of course in urban fights for example or any other fight with a cluttered Horizon Site range advantage means less Ukrainian Bradley's and latest Russian tanks are roughly similar there Russia May hold an edge with some tank models due to the commander also having a sight but many other tanks like those and the 1991 Bradley's were generally an overmatch for Iraqi tanks a small caveat cherry picking examples of Bradley fights against tanks from history is never advisable in real world examples there are always many variables in play anyway the Bradley Crews from first Armored Division and second armored Cavalry Regiment reported that in 1991 they destroyed Iraqi tanks with to missiles with engagement distances ranging from 800 to 3,700 M Bradley did sometimes get destroyed by tanks when in direct battles in 1991 the 32nd armored regiment had two M3 SC out Bradley's engaging a single t72 initial tow Missile hit but failed to neutralize the Tank tank then neutralized one Bradley before falling victim to another missile the most famous example from 1991 Iraq was when two Scout Bradley stumbled upon several Iraqi dugin tanks completely surprising the Iraqis AB Bradley fired its 25mm gun from point blank distance into a tank site disabling it moments later Bradley's fired two missiles from just 300 M away killing three more tanks due to the slow Iraqi Reaction Reloaded toes destroyed another t72 at least 5 t72 tanks were destroyed on that occasion of course more than one Bradley was lost in Iraq later the US Army office for operations and plans said 20 Bradley were destroyed and another 12 damaged but only 12 out of 32 were hit by enemy fire 1991 Iraq was clearly not an even fight though with so much in intelligence gathering training and technological superiority working for the US and Coalition forces Bradley were often using their thermal sides to help through bad weather firing tow missiles at more or less blind Iraqi tanks but what about more recent sets of examples in Ukraine there was an occasion in July 2023 where Ukraine's Deputy defense minister said one Bradley engaged two Russian t-72s and destroyed them both with tow missiles of course a much more recent example is from this past January when a lone Russian t90m tank Russia's best and newest wandered into a village alone without support and two Bradley met it at almost Point Blank Range maybe 100 or 200 M away it was not clear from the engagement accounts whether missiles have been used earlier or whether some third party Munitions have hit the tank but at one point a Bradley used it 25 mm gun shooting at Tank's frontal armor the commander of the Brad Bradley was later interviewed saying they were not doing damage with armor piercing rounds so they switched to explosive rounds to go after tank sensors at such a small distance that's certainly a valid tactic the Skirmish ended with the tank disabled bleeing and ultimately its three crew members leaving the tank so yeah there are several examples of Bradley's going head-to-head with tanks even using guns and disabling tanks but those are outliers of course a video of such an event is going to be repeated in all media it does not make it a standard tactic specifically a tank should never be sent to or Venture alone into urban surroundings where buildings are obstructing its view even at Short ranges Bradley would usually go for their tow missiles if they did not do that this time in Ukraine it may have meant they were out of missiles disabling tank sensors or subsystems with smaller caliber guns is possible but in most situations it will not happen most fights will be fought at longer distances and cannon fire will disperse not hitting often enough anything of importance Bradley can perform great even when attacking if the situation is right it all depends on variables whether the landscape is cluttered or not or whether the spotting of the enemy happens before Bradley is spotted whether enemy tanks are technologically much older whether Bradley can surprise them from the rear or the sides even when the enemy is on equal terms Bradley's can perform form admirably when defending tanks coming towards hidden Bradley are usually at a disadvantage as they can be reached by two missiles from over 4 km away but when Bradley's location is known to the enemy like Russian tanks then they can engage they have guided missiles which they fire from their main guns which outrange even the tow missile on a clear day if the area is flat tanks are going to see the Bradley's at roughly same distance and get to fire their missiles first of course of course smoke cover is often used which could cause missiles to miss if the tank is t90m or t72 B3 then it would benefit from its laser warning system which would make sure the smoke screen and decoys are fired at the right moment and in the right direction making smoke cover more effective but for some reason possibly pure inertia or penny pinching Bradley's and Abrams have not been fitted with laser warning receivers which means Bradley's would need to manually deploy smoke cover lowering its Effectiveness if Bradley are advancing and manage to close the distance then they could launch tow missiles laser guided missiles in Russian tanks nor optically guided toe missiles can perform well when obstructed by smoke to launch toe at max range Bradley would also need to use the Laser Rangefinder which would alert a tank like T90 and show the direction of the laser threat another issue for the Bradley would be the fact it has to be stationary while guiding its D missile during the 20 or so seconds of the missile's flight the opposing tanks could use regular gun rounds as well a big stationary vehicle even at 4 km is a fairly undemanding Target stock gun on the t72 firing an old kinetic penetrator at 2 km away in Slovak Army tests yield 20 out of 21 shots fired within 90 cm of the target same test showed that the modernized Slovakian gun for t72 would have yielded 19 out of 21 shots Landing inside 1 M from the center at 4 km Bradley's 25 mm gun is not designed for such long distance work at 4 km away its dispersion might be an issue its armor-piercing rounds fired at low rate of fire are accredited with 0.59 M radians of dispersion which is roughly half to a third of the accuracy of a tank's main gun there may be shots missing the center of a tank by a few meters enough to miss it completely at 100 r runs per minute fire rate required to achieve somewhat better Precision it's likely a few seconds of fire would be needed for one hit to land onto the tank and given the small size of delicate subsystems on the tank such as the sights it's improbable anything crucial would be hit from such a distance some 7 to 8 seconds after the first shot the tank could shoot again by the time Bradley's missile crosses 4 km the tank could shoot once more for a total of three shots while a doesn't have to disable a Bradley three hits would of course that's all a very gamey setup in the real world there would be more units on both sides there would be plenty of laser sources there would be plenty of missiles gun rounds and smoke across the battlefield both sides would miss often in reality the battle would be about creating an opportunity to overmatch the opponent if it would not be possible to surprise them at medium distances a modern tank would still have an upper hand it's only only at a few hundred M away where tow guidance would take maybe a second or two and where Bradley's crew would be able to actually aim for very specific parts of the tank and reliably hid them right away that's where the Bradley might have roughly equal or even somewhat higher chances really coming down to who gets to fire first in just 3 seconds 10 Rounds could land on the Tank's turret aimed at its weak points like the sights even the Tank's Barrel might get hurt 30 mm rounds did this to barrels of ir rocki tanks from greater distances latest 25 mm rounds can penetrate over 100 mm of Steel a modern US Bradley would have somewhat better chances against the tank one-on-one but only barely as the site Advantage is not so huge in a gamey head-on setup but if allowed to really take advantage of it trying to flank the enemy at night or if apply to real world setup with many other variables the benefits of more modern sites do start adding up it still doesn't guarantee a fair chance against a modern tank but it does give a Fighting Chance Bradley winning against the modern tank sure sometimes rarely but it can be done and when it happens it's a big news story The Bradley is a 1980s vehicle after all there are better vehicles of the same class out there which is why the US Army is developing its successor in the xm30 program which will outdo it in all departments including a main gun twice as big possibly twice as many missiles and certainly missiles that would threaten tanks much more that's it for this video as you saw at the beginning of the video we still have some plushies on sale this is the second batch of the Plushies that we made and if we are to make another one which is not yet sure we may make some changes to the design yes that may mean I will see a different uniform for example can't wear old clothes your whole life anyway if you liked our video hit the like button subscribe it's not just empty words it helps our Channel and until next time salutations and remember bov may talk about war but only real peace can bring us all [Music] together

Channel: Binkov's Battlegrounds

Views: 115,238

Keywords: Ukraine, Iraq, Russia, Bradley, M2A2ODS, m2a2 ODS, War in Ukraine, US, United States, Zelensky, Zelenski, Putin, Biden, Tow, M2A4, Thermo, Thermal, Vision, Gulf War, Smoke Cower, Rheinmetal, Rafael, ERA, 25 mm, Bushmaster, T-90, T-72, Avdiivka, Avdivka, Adivka, Bradley vs T-90, Armor penetration, Binkov, Bikov, Bnikov, Plushie, T90, T-90 destroyed

Id: pdZRM0JlMbw

Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 16 2024