Ukraine's Bradley fighting vehicles brace against Russian drones

The M2A2 Bradley ODS infantry fighting vehicles are among the best provided to Ukraine. Unfortunately, the number available falls short of needs, but soldiers from the 47th Mechanized Brigade have become known for heroic charges that inflicted significant losses on the Russians.

This makes the M2A2 Bradleys one of the key targets for Russians, who are trying to destroy them using the best equipment available. Until now, Ukrainian Bradleys have been relatively safe from FPV drone attacks, as many units were equipped with effective jammers from countries like Lithuania.

The situation changed in recent months when the Russians began producing Vandal-type FPV drones on a large scale. Their secret lies in the connection between the drone and the control station via a deployable fibre optic cable, making them impossible to jam. The only defence against them is shooting them down before they reach their target or using passive defences.

The second category includes mesh screens intended to cause a warhead to detonate prematurely. The recording below shows a Bradley unit whose turret is encased in a steel cage. The hull does not require reinforcement because it is densely covered with BRAT reactive armour blocks.

Due to payload limitations, FPV drones most often carry anti-tank bomblets from cluster munitions capable of penetrating roughly 20 cm of steel armour or PG-7VL grenades able to penetrate 50 cm of steel with the tail section removed, used in RPG-7 launchers.

Both methods use the cumulative effect to penetrate armour, which has significant armour-piercing capabilities relative to its mass. However, the resulting cumulative jet has a very limited range. For example, detonating the warhead about 60 cm from the armour will perforate 2 cm of steel armour without issue, which would not be possible under optimal conditions.

For this reason, adding grills or nets provides good protection against simple cumulative weapons. However, such protection can be overcome with a tandem warhead that contains two charges; the smaller first charge creates a breach in such a shield for the larger one to detonate under favourable conditions.

This is standard in most modern anti-tank weapons, but not in the case of drones. The problem is the increased mass of such warheads, likely too large for FPV drones currently also carrying spools of deployable fibre optic cables.

The M2A2 Bradley ODS weighs about 27 metric tonnes, which is somewhat lighter than better-armoured IFVs like the CV90 or Puma, which weigh around 40 metric tonnes. Nevertheless, the M2A2 Bradley still offers a much higher level of protection for a three-person crew and seven dismounted soldiers than the BMP family of vehicles.

The basic armour provides protection against fire from heavy machine guns such as the KPW calibre 14.5×114 mm, while the frontal armour can withstand 30 mm calibre projectiles fired from 2A42 automatic cannons. Additionally, the aforementioned BRAT reactive armour offers good protection against weapons with cumulative warheads.

As for armament, the main striking force is the M242 Bushmaster automatic cannon with a calibre of 25 mm, capable of firing 200 rounds per minute of armour-piercing or high-explosive incendiary M792 HEI-T ammunition. Additionally, the M2A2 Bradley is equipped with a dual launcher for BGM-71F (TOW 2B) anti-tank guided missiles.

This, combined with a fire control system with thermal imaging, allows for rapid detection and elimination of targets both at night and in adverse weather conditions. It is also worth noting that the ODS (Operation Desert Storm) variant is characterised, for example, by the use of a newer laser rangefinder compared to the M2A2 Bradley version.