U.S. soldiers of the NATO Extended Presence Battlegroup with their 'M1A1 Abrams' battle tank participiate in the military exercise Crystal Arrow 2021

The arrival of the US M1A1 Abrams tanks in Ukraine was hailed as a turning point in the war. Coming in at roughly $10 million a unit, the Nato stalwart was supposed to provide the armoured fist that would punch through the Russian lines. But tactics evolve quickly in warfare, and Russia’s use of surveillance and hunter-killer drones has led to heavy casualties for Ukraine’s tank fleets. This is alarming for NATO. If Russia has found critical vulnerabilities in our armour, our borders are beginning to look very vulnerable.

Washington pledged 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January last year. The first batch arrived in September. They finally appeared to make their combat debut in February this year, with the first video footage released on the 25th of Februray. On the 26th, the Russians scored their first Abrams kill.

Two months after entering service, the Abrams tanks are now being withdrawn from the frontline. Five of the 31 tanks delivered last year have already been destroyed.

On the face of it, this is a damning indictment of the vulnerability of a weapons system that originated a century ago to the weapons of the 21st century. But this does not tell the full story. The usefulness of the tank demonstrated at the battle of Cambrai in 1917 is not diminished on the battlefields of Ukraine in 2024, when used as they are meant to be.

To begin with, it’s worth noting that the Ukrainians are not using the latest and best model of the M1A1. Some of the features that make the tank more durable and hard hitting have been removed to avoid them falling into Russian hands. 

But we should also consider what the tank was intended to do. Enthusiastically backed by Winston Churchill, the tank was based around the attributes of firepower, protection and mobility.  As the German tactician General Heinz Guderian realised when he conceived Blitzkrieg warfare, it is shock action that the tank is most adept at, where its ability to manoeuvre at high speed and pack a huge punch gives it a battle winning role.

When used as a pillbox however, it just exploits its firepower at the expense of its manoeuvrability. This appears to be how the Ukrainian armed forces are deploying it, and makes it very vulnerable to drone attack.

Some changes to defences may also be required. Even modern western tanks like Abrams and Challenger 2 were conceived long before drones became a serious threat on the battlefield. Now, in Ukraine, these modern weapons have  come into their own. As the UK looks to recover and up rate its own conventional defence, this is an area for serious consideration and resource commitment. We cannot live in a world where drones costing a few thousand dollars have free rein to attack $10 million tanks where they are most vulnerable: from above, where the armour is only thick enough to stop machine gun fire.

There are simple work-arounds for this vulnerability; metal cages and explosive armour can be fitted to the tank roof to diminish this threat. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, tanks could be fitted with something like the British DragonFire laser system, which has shown promising early results in killing drones. If this takes place, the efficacy of drones will be radically reduced – until the next evolution. War continues evolving, and attack and defence continue to swap leads.

But in the nearer term, Ukraine must adopt a mindset based much more on manoeuvre type warfare, where rapid combined arms action can unhinge and dislocate the very static Russian invaders. This will require require air power, artillery and infantry all working together with the tanks to punch holes in Russian defences and run riot in the rear areas.

There is some reason for optimism. The new long range Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) provided by the US have already struck airfields in Crimea and are set to cause havoc behind the Russian lines. The much-vaunted F-16 fighters, meanwhile, are just over the horizon and should give Ukraine room to allow its armoured forces freedom of manoeuvre and action on the ground.

And perhaps most importantly of all, the Ukrainians are getting used to working with modern Western tanks. The ground is drying out, the ammunition is flowing in, and the armoured charge may be coming. A western tank travelling at 50 mph is a good deal harder to hit than a static one. The days of armoured warfare may not be numbered yet.

Ukraine pulls US tanks from front lines over Russian drone threats

Ukraine has sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press.

The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines.

But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. Those weapons have made it more difficult for Ukraine to protect the tanks when they are quickly detected and hunted by Russian drones or rounds.

Five of the 31 tanks have already been lost to Russian attacks.

The proliferation of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield means “there isn’t open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection,” a senior defense official told reporters Thursday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide an update on U.S. weapons support for Ukraine before Friday’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.

For now, the tanks have been moved from the front lines, and the U.S. will work with the Ukrainians to reset tactics, said Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady and a third defense official who confirmed the move on the condition of anonymity.

“When you think about the way the fight has evolved, massed armor in an environment where unmanned aerial systems are ubiquitous can be at risk,” Grady told the AP in an interview this week, adding that tanks are still important.

“Now, there is a way to do it,” he said. “We’ll work with our Ukrainian partners, and other partners on the ground, to help them think through how they might use that, in that kind of changed environment now, where everything is seen immediately.”

News of the sidelined tanks comes as the U.S. marks the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries that meets monthly to assess Ukraine’s battlefield needs and identify where to find needed ammunition, weapons or maintenance to keep Ukraine’s troops equipped.

Recent aid packages, including the $1 billion military assistance package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, also reflect a wider reset for Ukrainian forces in the evolving fight.

This week’s assistance emphasized counter-drone capabilities, including .50-caliber rounds specifically modified to counter drone systems; additional air defenses and ammunition; and a host of alternative, and cheaper, vehicles, including Humvees, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles.

The U.S. also confirmed for the first time that it is providing long-range ballistic missiles known as ATACMs, which allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian-occupied areas without having to advance and be further exposed to either drone detection or fortified Russian defenses.

While drones are a significant threat, the Ukrainians also have not adopted tactics that could have made the tanks more effective, one of the U.S. defense officials said.

After announcing it would provide Ukraine the Abrams tanks in January 2023, the U.S. began training Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Army base in Germany that spring on how to maintain and operate them. They also taught the Ukrainians how to use them in combined arms warfare — where the tanks operate as part of a system of advancing armored forces, coordinating movements with overhead offensive fires, infantry troops and air assets.

As the spring progressed and Ukraine’s highly anticipated counteroffensive stalled, shifting from tank training in Germany to getting Abrams on the battlefield was seen as an imperative to breach fortified Russian lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on his Telegram channel in September that the Abrams had arrived in Ukraine.

Since then, however, Ukraine has only employed them in a limited fashion and has not made combined arms warfare part of its operations, the defense official said.

During its recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that was the focus of intense fighting for months, several tanks were lost to Russian attacks, the official said.

A long delay by Congress in passing new funding for Ukraine meant its forces had to ration ammunition, and in some cases they were only able to shoot back once for every five or more times they were targeted by Russian forces.

In Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces were badly outgunned and fighting back against Russian glide bombs and hunter-killer drones with whatever ammunition they had left.