US-made armored vehicles in service with the Ukrainian military are up against an unfamiliar threat on the battlefield, one that they haven’t faced in previous wars.
Russia and Ukraine employ small drones strapped with explosives as a way to deliver cheap and effective precision strikes on enemy armor, often damaging or destroying them.
The US Army is closely watching how US armored systems delivered to Ukraine — specifically the M1 Abrams tank and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle — are performing in combat and holding up in this new type of warfare.
It’s also taking lessons from the conflict and applying them in training, teaching new soldiers how to grasp clearly the threat of small drones. Col. James Modlin, deputy commandant of the Army’s Armor School, said that it’s “important” for them to be able to understand the prevalence of small unmanned systems on future battlefields and that the fight is changing.
“It’s really just recognizing that it’s a threat — that this …