Ukraine Could Get American M-2 Fighting Vehicles. They’re Exactly What The Ukrainian Army Needs To Stay On The Offensive.

The administration of U.S. president Joe Biden is considering donating to Ukraine some of the U.S. Army’s redundant M-2 infantry fighting vehicles, Bloomberg reported.

It’s exactly what the Ukrainian army needs most as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its 11th month, the wet winter deepens, the ground freezes and Ukraine positions forces for a possible new counteroffensive.

The 25-ton M-2, produced by BAE Systems, is an infantry fighting vehicle. An IFV is an armored personnel carrier that, thanks to its turret-mounted cannon, also can fight. In addition to shuttling troops around the battlefield, IFVs accompany and protect tanks and dismounted infantry.

The three-person M-2 boasts a 25-millimeter chain gun, a launcher for TOW anti-tank missiles, laminate armor that can deflect heavy machine-gun fire and a troop compartment that can fit six infantry.

Now 40 years old, the M-2 isn’t the world’s best IFV, but it arguably is superior to even the newest BMP IFVs in the Russian and Ukrainian arsenals. Mark Hertling, a retired U.S. Army general, sang the M-2’s praises. “Chain gun, TOWs, speed, easier maintenance, smaller crew, better mileage, available vehicles … ” Hertling tweeted.

Perhaps more importantly, the U.S. Army has thousands of older M-2s in storage. Even a few hundred of them significantly would improve the Ukrainian army’s offensive combat power.

The Ukrainians didn’t have enough IFVs when the Russians attacked back in February. Nearly a year later, the IFV shortfall is even greater.

Each of the Ukrainian army and marine corps’ roughly three dozen heavy brigades requires a hundred or more infantry fighting vehicles. Starting with the pre-war arsenal, subtracting combat losses and adding BMPs the Ukrainians have captured from the Russians, the Ukrainians today possess a couple thousand BMPs.

But that’s too few to equip all of their heavy brigades—to say nothing of also bulking up the two dozen local territorial brigades that increasingly are participating in Ukraine’s offensive campaigns.

Despite the shortfall, Ukraine’s NATO allies have donated just a few hundred IFVs—all of them old BMPs. Ukraine hasn’t received a single non-Soviet IFV from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany or any other ally.

Instead, NATO countries have sent to Ukraine a thousand lightly-armed APCs—M-113s, mostly—that each can carry around a dozen infantry but generally lack turrets and cannons. They can carry, but they can’t fight.

Yes, the M-113 is fast and reliable. But all those APCs filling in for IFVs could represent risk for Ukrainian heavy brigades—and likely explain the enduring demand for “Frankenstein” IFVs that combine bits and pieces of various derelict or damaged armored vehicles. Ukraine is so desperate for IFVs that it’s producing them from battlefield wreckage.

More than fighter jets, more than the tanks, arguably more than even artillery, Ukraine needs IFVs in order to maintain its offensive posture into the war’s second year. The United States finally is considering providing them.