A video was released on an anonymous Ukrainian ‘Telegram’ channel of a firefight involving recently delivered U.S. made M2A2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV). The video was recorded by an onboard camera, on what I believe is probably the platoon commanders Bradley.
The battle happened in Zaporizka Oblast (aka Zaporizhzhia), on 08JUN2023, the platoon of Bradleys made contact with enemy forces, which apparently were too powerful as the IFVs are attempting to fall back. The platoon commander is using the 25mm gun to provide covering fire as M2A2s retreat, unfortunately the retreating IFVs are driving in front of the Bradley providing covering fire!
Impressively, the gunner is able to control his trigger pulls missing the retreating vehicles, but one of the retreating Bradleys is either hit by enemy fire, or runs over a land mine. You might think the crew are dead, but amazingly the crew emerges from the back with their M4 assault rifles. A smoke grenade is thrown, then the platoon commander fires-off his smoke grenade launcher, the homeless IFV crew uses the smoke as cover while they scramble onto the platoon commander’s Bradley.
The anonymous poster of the video added crappy music, so I edited out the audio:
Interestingly, while Russian news sources made fun of the Ukrainians’ apparently failed attempt to use M2A2 Bradleys in battle, some Russian news sources also praised the Bradleys for ‘crew survivability’ admitting that the crews operating Soviet/Cold War era BMPs (Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty, Боевая Машина Пехоты, Combat Vehicle Infantry) would not have survived the same incident!
When I first joined the U.S. military during the last decade of the Cold War, crew survivability was one of the main drivers of ‘Western’/NATO combat vehicle design.
Forever Wars:
SNAKE RIVER M1A2 SEP, BORESIGHT MOROCCO!
NATO-SLOVAK BMP (BVP) & OT-90, Cold War to Battle for Ukraine