US provided 190 Bradleys to Ukraine, a dozen are completely destroyed – WP

The USA had provided Ukraine with 190 Bradley vehicles, about a dozen of which have been fully destroyed; the Ukrainian military lacks spare parts for their repair.

Source: The Washington Post citing sources

Quote from WP: "‘The United States has committed 190 Bradleys overall, with more than half delivered to operational units in Ukraine,’ said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

... About a dozen Bradleys have been destroyed, a senior U.S. defence official said."

Details: Data from the analytical website Oryx, which only takes into account the loss of equipment with video or photo evidence of damage, indicates that several dozen more machines have been damaged to varying degrees. Many of them have been repaired and returned to the battlefield. Some of them have to be sent to Poland for more serious repairs.

In particular, WP journalists recorded six vehicles being repaired in a forested area; most of them were damaged by mine explosions.

Some vehicles can take just a few hours to repair. At the same time, the soldiers with whom the publication spoke feel a lack of spare parts for repairs.

Quote from WP citing the military: "Some vehicles are labelled ‘donors’, meaning the Ukrainians will strip out the usable parts to install in other, less-damaged Bradleys and then fill the donor vehicle with the broken bits before shipping it off for a larger-scale repair at the facility in Poland.

One early limitation for how quickly the Ukrainians can fix the Bradleys and get them back on the battlefield: not enough spare parts, military personnel said."

More details: A high-ranking source of the publication said that in many cases, the Ukrainians used the machines exactly as they were taught during training in Germany, namely as part of a strategy called "combined arms", when infantry, armoured vehicles and aircraft act together.

At the same time, the same source states that there were "anecdotal reports to the contrary". In his opinion, in some cases, Ukrainians are "just not using them [the vehicles – ed.] to their fullest potential with all their other assets that they have available".

Background: 

• At the end of June, The New York Times reported that about 15% of Bradley combat vehicles were damaged during the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Predominantly, the vehicles exploded on mines.

• Earlier, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi emphasised that Ukraine received the Bradley not in order to "parade on them, but in order for them to be targeted on the battlefield": "Yes, we lose them. A little, let's say, but there are losses. You cannot get away from this. This is normal".

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