Amid the wider offensives and front lines of the war in Ukraine, a recent fight showed a singular fight. An American-made Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle went head to head against a Russian armored personnel character in Ukraine and emerged victorious.
Video shared to social media shows a Ukrainian-operated Bradley infantry fighting vehicle taking on a Russian BTR-82 in a game of armed chicken, with both vehicles charging at and firing at each other down a narrow road in rural Ukraine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C77CYSFOudS/
The video — taken by drone like so much war footage from Ukraine — follows the Russian BTR armored personnel carrier as it engages with a Bradley operated by Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade. The Bradley hammers the Russian fighting vehicle with fire, the impacts showing up on the video from above as the vehicle veers off of the road. Footage shows Russian soldiers falling off the APC after the direct hits, apparent casualties from the fighting. Despite the Russian BTR also laying down heavy fire of its own it doesn’t appear to land anywhere close to the same level of damage.
Eventually they almost collide, trading gunfire at nearly point blank range like naval ships of old trading broadsides, before the Russian APC breaks off, heavily damaged. The drone camera follows it, where it eventually comes to a halt off the road, spewing smoke.
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The video was shared widely on social media, including being shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on X. The footage doesn’t have any actual sounds from the battle or snippets of radio chatter. Instead, as with much of the combat footage from the war, it’s often set to electronic music. One version, which Task & Purpose found, has it set to “Duel of Fates” from “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” which is more epic. None appear set to the score from “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Along with the motorized mayhem, the video also gives a good picture of the common battlefield outside of the trench-filled urban combat zones. The fields are pockmarked with craters and impact zones from mortars and artillery. The few buildings there are bombed out. And meanwhile on the narrow roads linking the farms, armored vehicles are duking it out at close range.
The Bradley, which is not a tank, has been very effective on the Ukrainian battlefield. Since it arrived in the war zone, it has been used both as a troop carrier and as battlefield armor, often punching up against its weight. Several videos over the last months have shown Bradleys taking on Russian tanks and winning, despite being outgunned. Their 25mm cannons have also added more firepower to Ukraine’s front lines.
Dozens more Bradleys are headed to Ukraine as part of an aid package announced this past month. The aid package also includes dozens more M113 armored personnel carriers and several Patriot, Javelin and Stinger missile systems for use against armor, aircraft and missiles.
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