that appeared online on Friday is a reminder that the 2,000-person formation—with its 14 Challenger 2 tanks, 40 Marder tracked infantry fighting vehicles and 90 Stryker wheeled IFVs—is ready to roll into action at the time and place of Ukrainian commanders’ choosing.
The 82nd’s vehicles—plus the two dozen 105-millimeter howitzers that support them—together form a potent assault force. One that could breach Russian defenses, or exploit anThe 71-ton, four-crew Challenger 2 with its thick composite armor—equivalent to nearly 2,000 millimeters of steel on the turret front—might be the best-protected tank in Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. The United Kingdom donated powerful depleted-uranium rounds for the tanks’ 120-millimeter rifled guns.
That’s a tiny fraction of the armor that protects a Challenger 2. But for an IFV, it’s a lot. Ukraine’s mainstay BMP-1 IFV has half as much protection. A Marder should be able to deflect 30-millimeter autocannon rounds. The 16-ton, eight-wheel Stryker—which carries two crew and up to nine infantry and packs a heavy machine gun or grenade-launcher—is thinly armored compared to the Marder. It can resist heavy machine gun fire, but a 30-millimeter cannon round might punch right through it.
The 82nd Brigade is much heavier than the 37th Brigade is, but it’s not heavier than the 47th and 33rd Brigades are. There’s no reason to expect the 82nd won’tlose a lot of vehicles—and potentially their crews—when it first comes into contact with entrenched Russian troops. Wherever and whenever that might be.