M 55s News Today

One shell is for destroying bunkers. The other, for knocking out light armored vehicles.

We still don’t know what kind of ammunition Ukraine’s M-55S and Leopard 1A5 tanks fire from their L7 guns. And it matters. A lot.

Yes, the tank has layers of explosive reactive armor. But the steel underneath the ERA is just a couple hundred millimeters thick at its thickest.

It’s not clear where along the 40-mile Kreminna front the M-55Ss are—and whether they held the line even as the first of their number fell prey to Russian gunners.

Incredibly, the Ukrainian M-55S tank that ate what appears to have been a Russian artillery round last week survived the blast with modest damage.

If Ukrainian planners were trying to keep the old M-55Ss away from the heaviest fighting, they may have miscalculated.

The Ukrainian army’s 47th Assault Brigade has been at the very front of Ukraine’s long-anticipated 2023 counteroffensive. Its tanks have not been.