T-72B3 Tank Was Behind Latest Abrams Kill In Ukraine: Russian MoD

A Russian T-72B3 main battle tank was responsible for the destruction of the third American-made M1A1 SA Abrams tank of Kiev forces in the Avdeevka direction, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed on March 6.

“A T-72B3 tank crew destroyed an American-made Abrams with the first shot” in the Avdeevka direction over the past day, the ministry said in a briefing.

Video footage of the attack on the tank shows that it was first knocked out with an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), and soon after completely destroyed by a second. An American-made M2A2 ODS-SA Bradley infantry fighting vehicle that was near the tank was killed by a third ATGM.

The T-72B3 is a deep modernization of the Soviet-made T-72 tank with significantly improved fire control and sighting systems.

The main armament of the tank is the 2A46M-5 smoothbore gun which is capable of launching ATGMs, namely the 9M119 Refleks. The gun-launched, laser-guided missile enables the tank to hit targets at twice the range of the 125 mm shells. Its tandem warhead can penetrate up to 900 mm of armor.

The latest defeated Abrams was the third to be destroyed by Russian fire so far. The previous two tanks were also hit in the Avdeevka direction.

The United States supplied Ukraine with 31 Abrams tanks and an unknown number of M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV), which are built on the same chassis, over the past year. In addition to the Abrams losses, two ABVs have been destroyed so far, also in the Avdeevka direction.

The failure of the Abrams in Ukraine was not surprising, though for sure embarrassing for Ukraine and the U.S. who promoted the tank as some Wunderwaffe.

Source - https://southfront.press/t-72b3-tank-was-behind-latest-abrams-kill-in-ukraine-russian-mod/