America has pledged over $175 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded, which includes over $100 billion in military spending. That includes shells, tanks, rockets, cannons, anti-tank weapons, drones, and missile defense systems worth $1 billion each. So which weapons have proven most critical on the battlefield? And will the latest round of aid really help Ukraine in a war many are calling a stalemate?
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00America's pledged at least $175 billion to Ukraine since Russia invaded.
00:08That's more than the cost of the first four years of keeping American troops in Afghanistan.
00:15That includes military aid in the form of shells, tanks, rockets, cannons, anti-tank
00:24launchers, drones, and most recently, air support and missile defense systems worth
00:32$1 billion each.
00:35So which weapons have proven most critical on the battlefield, and will the latest round
00:40of aid really help Ukraine in a war some have called a stalemate?
00:51Early in the war, infantry arms were easy to ship in anticipation of widespread urban
00:56warfare.
00:57The shoulder-mounted Javelin uses automated guidance to shatter tank armor with a top-down
01:04impact.
01:07Since the war started, the U.S. has sent at least 10,000 of them to Ukraine.
01:12Just one Javelin system can cost over $200,000.
01:17I'm Sam Feldman.
01:18I'm a defense editor with Business Insider, and I'm a U.S. Navy veteran.
01:24An anti-tank guided missile is designed to penetrate tank armor.
01:29A soldier who is trained on one doesn't take a lot of training to fire one of these.
01:34The soldier who's carrying one has to leave cover for maybe two or three seconds for the
01:40missile to acquire an enemy armor, and then can fire it and can go back to hiding.
01:46And the missile's guidance system will take care of the rest.
01:57The NLAW became another popular option at $40,000 each, but it can only be used once.
02:05In addition to infantry arms, the U.S. has sent at least 100,000 sets of body armor and
02:11helmets.
02:13Set gear like this runs for about $1,000 on the open market.
02:19The U.S. has also sent more serious chemical, biological, and nuclear protective gear, along
02:24with bomb disposal equipment.
02:27During the first months of the conflict, manufacturers around the world struggled to keep up with
02:32Ukrainian demand.
02:35Ukrainian soldiers also received night vision devices, thermal imagery systems, and range
02:40finders.
02:43By the spring of 2022, Russian forces faced fierce resistance in key cities, and pulled
02:49back east to resupply.
02:52That gave Ukraine some breathing room.
02:54But it's also when the reality of an extended conflict set in.
03:00Both armies turned to longer-range weapons that have remained in heavy use today.
03:06Artillery.
03:07Before the war, most Ukrainian artillery guns were Soviet-made.
03:12Ukraine tried to produce cannons domestically, but it can take more than six months to make
03:17just one.
03:19So American factories stepped in.
03:22This facility in Watervilleet, New York, is one of the only places in the U.S. capable
03:27of making large-caliber cannons like the M-777.
03:33It's supplied the military since the War of 1812.
03:38Every barrel starts as a preformed hollow cylinder of steel.
03:43The gas-powered induction furnace heats these preforms to 2,000 degrees.
03:49All the materials that we use right now are resourced within the United States.
03:55This machine, called a rotary forge, starts to shape the outer dimensions of the cannon
04:00tube.
04:02Then barrels go through a series of treatments that toughen them to handle firing thousands
04:07of rounds.
04:09A compressor applies thousands of pounds of pressure, bending barrels like pool noodles
04:15to remove any imperfections.
04:17We have one of our skilled machinists going through and pressing that tube back into shape.
04:23Workers use a bench grinder to round any sharp edges off the barrel.
04:27This part has to be done by hand.
04:30We call it the Rolls-Royce treatment.
04:32It really puts that final finishing touch, that craftsmanship to that barrel.
04:37As part of the inspection process, a technician uses a bore scope to look straight down the
04:42barrel.
04:44Now it's ready for paint.
04:46Most military equipment has what they call C.A.R.C. paint.
04:49It's an acronym that stands for Chemical Agent Resistant Coating.
04:53So it's specialized to withstand all different types of conditions and potential for chemical
04:59attacks or biological attacks.
05:02In another part of the factory, workers test every firing mechanism.
05:06This is when the crew would insert an actual round.
05:10This is a simulated round, obviously.
05:12Seat it into the bore and then close the block, which would be ready for firing at this point.
05:17So they would fire the weapon, then they would go and open the block, and then remove the
05:23cartridge.
05:25Each barrel is engraved with key information.
05:28The details of the tube, where it was manufactured, the year, and the serial number.
05:32Every can of tube produced here at Waterville, it always has the commander's initials stamped
05:37on the can of tube so you know when that can of tube was used during that commander's tenure.
05:42That tradition goes back all the way since the first time we produced can of tubes in
05:46early World War I, 1917.
05:48The best part, A.G.F.
05:53And this factory in Pennsylvania is making Ukraine's most important ammo, the 155-millimeter
05:59shells used in artillery guns.
06:03The U.S. Army is producing about 35,000 rounds of them every month, more than double what
06:08it was making before the war.
06:11155s are the perfect balance between power and weight.
06:17They're shot from howitzers, which are basically a cannon and mortar combined.
06:23These massive guns fire shells high up into the air so that they drop down onto their
06:28targets.
06:29155-millimeter shells are small enough to fire up to 20 miles, but can still do serious
06:36damage.
06:37They're packed with 24 pounds of TNT and explode on impact, sending deadly shrapnel in all
06:43directions.
06:45Everything starts in the billet yard.
06:48Engineers move steel rods to the next phase, the forge shop.
06:52Four robotic saws slice the rods into 14-inch-long chunks called billets.
06:58Efficiency is key to speed.
07:01Then they heat them for an hour at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:06This softens them up so they're easy to shape.
07:09You couldn't possibly forge a billet at room temperature.
07:14We're basically turning the steel into Play-Doh.
07:17Machine machines stretch and shape the billets into their final form.
07:23Another one adds a nose, which makes it aerodynamic.
07:27Comes into the press.
07:28It's still a two.
07:29As it leaves the press, it's now a projectile.
07:34They're inspected and then fed to the production shop.
07:38Then the grand finale.
07:40Workers reheat the billets, then cool them in a 6,000-gallon oil bath.
07:46After some final lathing and polishing, workers hang the shells on hooks.
07:51Then they get a fresh paint job.
07:53The entire process takes about three days.
07:56After the shells are done, they take a truck ride to another factory that adds TNT.
08:03Then they're ready for the battlefield.
08:07It's there that soldiers will add the fuse and turn it into a lethal bomb.
08:13Even with a brand new 155mm factory built in just 10 months in Texas, Russia continues
08:20to produce three times more artillery shells than the United States.
08:27And despite high demand, towed howitzers have major drawbacks.
08:32In Ukraine, they take a long time to move after they're fired, putting crews at risk.
08:38But when it comes to ground warfare, tanks remain the apex predators.
08:45For the first year of the conflict, Western officials hesitated to supply tanks to Ukraine,
08:51saying it would take too long to train soldiers how to use them.
08:55U.S. Army tankers must complete 22 weeks of training before deploying with an M1 Abrams.
09:02These things can happen to you.
09:03You can get crushed, your arms, legs, whatever it is.
09:06There's a lot of things that can go wrong in a tank.
09:08Nicknamed the Beast, Dracula, and Whispering Death, the M1 Abrams packs a 120mm cannon
09:15and mounted machine guns.
09:17It's considered one of the best tanks ever made.
09:22People who like big guns and loud noises, 1,500 horsepower engines and fire, I mean,
09:27that's how it draw me in.
09:28With a cost of up to $9 million each, it debuted in combat during the Gulf War and remains
09:35the U.S. Army's main battle tank.
09:39A four-person crew operates the M1.
09:42The tank commander, the gunner, the loader, and the driver, usually the smallest member
09:48of the team.
09:49See these little dudes?
09:50They just fall right in there, huh?
09:51Those big boys gotta, like, crawl in there.
09:54As part of the training, soldiers also learn how to maintain and repair the tanks.
09:59The M1's 120mm smoothbore gun fires a variety of rounds that can destroy other tanks up
10:06to 3,000 meters away.
10:08So this is our M865 training sabot round.
10:11This is what we use to simulate our service sabot ammunition for training.
10:16Weighs approximately 35 pounds.
10:19The tank can hold 42 rounds total.
10:22Our service ammunition is designed to penetrate through enemy armor, and then it has a devastating
10:28effect on the inside of the vehicle.
10:31Back in Ukraine with a limited supply of tanks, soldiers resorted to trickery to bait Russia
10:37to fire on decoys.
10:40But by early 2023, following mounting international pressure and weeks of negotiations, the tanks
10:47rolled in.
10:49Ukraine doesn't have extensive tank production needed by this war, and so Ukraine is very
10:54dependent on its Western partners for the supports to repair tanks and for new tanks.
11:00The U.S. has given 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
11:05If you factor in the ammunition and parts support for the M1 Abrams, it's likely north
11:11of $200 million in support that the U.S. has provided in the M1 Abrams tanks.
11:18Including German Leopard 2s and British Challengers, that's a tank ground force worth well over
11:24$1 billion.
11:26So how does it compare to Russia's fleet?
11:31Russia is one of the largest tank forces in the world, and Russia's using pretty much
11:37everything it's got.
11:39Ukraine has received donated tanks from Western partners.
11:44Those are all very modern tanks.
11:46The M1 Abrams is a premier tank designed to destroy Soviet and Russian-made tanks, and
11:53my guess would be the Ukrainians wish they had more.
11:56They could certainly use them.
11:58It has computerized fire control software.
12:01It has depleted uranium rounds that are designed to shatter enemy armor, and it was built specifically
12:09for tank-on-tank battles.
12:11The M1 Abrams has a high top speed.
12:13It has a gas turbine engine that creates a lot of power.
12:16It is a top tank, and yet it is also facing the same threats that have bogged down Russian
12:23and other Western-made tanks.
12:25The challenges with the M1 Abrams is that it requires a lot of maintenance.
12:31Russian tanks are less survivable than Western-made tanks.
12:36Western-made tanks are better designed to protect the crew, and when they sustain a
12:41direct hit, it's more frequent that a Western tank will be able to be towed and then repaired.
12:48You would not find me in any Russian tank.
12:50The risks of all Soviet-designed vehicles to the crew are really high.
12:56The Soviet-made tanks often become total losses and crew killers when they're hit.
13:01A good example that's indicative of this is the jack-in-the-box effect.
13:05The T-72 has a design flaw where the crew essentially sits on top of ammunition storage
13:12for the tank's shells, and that means that a blast into this space is going to potentially
13:18cook off the stored ammunition inside the tank.
13:22The top turret will basically blow off from this massive explosion of all the tank's ammunition.
13:29That'll make the tank a total loss.
13:31Both sides are adapting their armored vehicles for the pretty pervasive threat of drones,
13:39and so one way this is manifesting itself are these cope cages.
13:43It's like a welded netting that goes around the tank.
13:47This is designed to make it more tricky to land an exploding drone right on the tank's
13:53shell and blast inwards.
13:55These cages, if you will, kind of look like mosquito nets that try to keep the explosion
14:00a little bit further from the tank's hull.
14:03The other side of that is that drone pilots are becoming more skilled at getting around
14:07these and attacking vulnerable points.
14:14And the drones themselves are getting smaller and cheaper.
14:18But they're actually more dangerous than ever.
14:22In March 2024, the U.S. Army asked for an additional $500 million for counter-drone
14:28technology.
14:31One U.S. company has sent thousands of drones to Ukraine since 2022, including its most
14:37successful product.
14:41These are what's known as loitering munitions.
14:43They can fly around waiting for a target to be identified before crashing to the ground
14:48to destroy it.
14:50So it's really a combination of an artillery and a drone that has got the capabilities
14:56of both.
14:57John Aldana manages the loitering munitions program at AeroVironment on the west coast
15:03of the United States.
15:04The company has been producing missiles like this, the Switchblade 300, and the larger
15:09600, for over two decades.
15:12They actually fold up like so and are inside a launch tube that's just a little bit larger
15:17than this.
15:19It launches the Switchblade out.
15:22The wings open up like that, which is why we call it a Switchblade.
15:25The propellers here, because of the air, will start to spin, and the battery, which
15:29is inside, kicks in, and it's off.
15:33The 300 can loiter for about 15 minutes and is designed to take out small targets like
15:39enemy soldiers and trucks, while the larger 600 can wait around for up to 40 minutes and
15:45attack armored vehicles.
15:47Operators can control the Switchblades from as far as 40 kilometers away.
15:52You have the ability to wave off, so you can cancel the mission all the way to the
15:55very end, go back to loitering, find another target of interest, and engage a different
16:01target of interest that you may not have even known about.
16:03Wow.
16:0422.
16:05Look at that.
16:06I'm thrilled.
16:07The United States sent 700 of these to Ukraine in early 2022.
16:13Videos shared by Ukrainian forces claimed to be Switchblade attacks on the ground.
16:18Each Switchblade 300 is reported to cost around $6,000.
16:24That's more than an off-the-shelf drone rigged to carry a grenade, but far less than the
16:29cost of an unmanned aircraft, like the MQ-9 Reaper, that can fly back to base once it's
16:35fired on a target.
16:37And the Switchblades are being designed to think more and more for themselves.
16:42Autonomous or semi-autonomous drones are going to be used to conduct these kinds of conflicts.
16:48That means tracking and recognizing a target, even one that's on the move.
16:53When Russia invaded Ukraine, many experts predicted an easy victory for Putin's forces.
16:59But Russia miscalculated the level of Ukrainian resistance.
17:03Drones have given Ukrainian forces the ability to field cheap and persistent air power that
17:09brings pretty significant threats to Russian ground forces.
17:12And for a while, its ill-prepared troops were caught in a 40-mile-long convoy to the north
17:17of Kiev.
17:18They were sitting ducks for Ukrainian guns and drones.
17:23The Ukrainian government launched an appeal to fund an army of drones.
17:28We call on the service of Ukraine, all the simplest drones, which you use to shoot nature.
17:35And teams of civilian engineers have adapted large numbers of off-the-shelf drones for
17:40the battlefield.
17:41Some, like this one, can grip and release small grenades.
17:46Social media transformed the drone into a symbol of heroic Ukrainian resistance.
17:51Aerial footage of strikes on Russian targets are often accompanied by rock music.
17:57The impression is of a nimble David slaying the Russian Goliath.
18:02But the reality is more nuanced.
18:04Unmanned aircraft, drones and loitering munitions certainly helped.
18:08But Russia quickly stepped up its defenses and used drones of its own.
18:13They weren't ready for it, but they are now.
18:16The Russians, I think, have really compensated and now developed their air defenses, shot
18:21down these TB2s and really kind of rendered and almost neutralized that technology.
18:31Soldiers on the front lines are trying to cope with that new balance of power.
18:35They have the same drones, we have the same drones.
18:37Like now, even going in a recon mission or as a sniper group, you always have to keep
18:43in mind that someone sees you.
18:47At the daytime, the daily drones.
18:50At nighttime, there are drones with like a thermal vision.
18:55According to military experts, neither Ukraine nor Russia has yet achieved air superiority.
19:02Since 2022, Ukraine has used 20 donated Mi-17 helicopters for troop transport and armed
19:09air support.
19:11Each one is worth about $18 million.
19:15The U.S. originally purchased these for Afghanistan, but once the country fell to the Taliban,
19:21the choppers were redirected to Ukraine.
19:24And these birds have a secret.
19:27They were manufactured by Kazan, a Russian company.
19:34Until recently, NATO hesitated to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine, fearing Russian escalation.
19:42That changed after the Defense Alliance's summit in July 2024.
19:47Now, Ukraine is set to receive 85 F-16s from multiple countries.
19:54Made by Lockheed Martin, F-16s cost between $14 and $18 million each.
19:59They've proven their worth over decades of combat, and will be a big upgrade from
20:04Ukraine's mainly Soviet-era planes.
20:08At least one Ukrainian pilot compared flying an F-16 to upgrading from a Nokia to an iPhone.
20:15But there are problems.
20:17Ukraine's air force has only 20 pilots trained to fly an F-16.
20:22And according to experts, the planes require a lot of maintenance.
20:29Back on the ground, several manned vehicles are going toe-to-toe with Russian forces.
20:35The Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle is quick, highly maneuverable, and can carry up to a
20:40half a dozen fully equipped soldiers.
20:44Ukrainians highly rate the estimated 300 of them they've received so far.
20:51In this video, released by Ukraine, a U.S.-supplied M2 Bradley clashes head-on with a Russian
20:56armored personnel carrier.
20:59Ukrainian troops have reported that Russian soldiers are afraid of facing U.S.-supplied
21:03Bradleys.
21:08As of spring 2024, for the first time, the U.S. is supplying Ukraine with ATAKMS, long-range
21:14missile systems that could be used to strike inside Russia's borders.
21:18That went right to the president.
21:20And as you've heard, he's approved the use of our weapons for that purpose.
21:25The exact number of ATAKMS remains unknown, but the missiles cost about $1.4 million each.
21:32So how could these change the war?
21:34And how have they been performing so far?
21:38HIMARS is a very specific and advanced multiple launcher rocket system.
21:44It is a MLRS that adds precision capability.
21:47So SMERSH is one of the top MLRS systems that Russia has developed.
21:52It is the closest comparable to HIMARS.
21:56They're basically both truck-mounted rocket launchers.
21:59There's important differences in the way that they're used, and there's important differences
22:03in their capabilities.
22:07HIMARS generally fires three kinds of rockets, unitary warhead and area effects warhead.
22:13Those ranges are about 50 miles, and it's able to fire six of those at a time.
22:19There is also a way that instead of carrying six rockets, it carries one rocket.
22:24In this case, it's actually what's called Tactical Ballistic Missile, known as ATAKMS.
22:30And ATAKMS has a 190-mile range.
22:32ATAKMS is a much more expensive system.
22:35It's roughly $1.4 million per ATAKMS, or the unitary warhead are just much cheaper.
22:41They're about $100,000 for each rocket.
22:43The BM-30 SMERSH, with its unguided rockets, has a very similar range of about 43 miles.
22:51With its upgraded rockets, which are called TORNADO-S rockets, they are navigation system
22:57aided, those have a range of about 74 miles.
23:02That exceeds the range of the comparable HIMARS unitary and area effects warheads.
23:13Precision is a major differentiator in evaluating these systems.
23:17HIMARS is a highly precise system.
23:20It essentially has an evaluated accuracy within about two meters.
23:26You could target it for the front of a Humvee, and it might hit the rear door.
23:32The BM-30 SMERSH, with its upgraded rockets, which are called TORNADO-S rockets, the Russian
23:38manufacturer Rostec says that it's much more accurate than previously inertial navigation
23:45system guided rockets.
23:47Can we quantify that?
23:49No.
23:50We are only seeing some of the usage in Ukraine.
23:53It seems to be fairly limited usage.
23:58HIMARS has about a four to five minute reloading time.
24:02The way that crews typically operate, once they fire their rockets at a launch point,
24:07they are what's called shooting and scooting.
24:09So they are getting out of that area, and they are likely going to a resupply point.
24:16In the case of HIMARS, it can either carry one ATACOMS or it can carry one pod of six
24:22other rockets with shorter ranges.
24:24Those pods are basically moved all together in one piece.
24:28It's like moving like a pallet.
24:30It's done within about four to five minutes.
24:32The BM-30 SMERSH relies on a servicing vehicle.
24:37That tends to take somewhere between 20 and 38 minutes to reload this.
24:44Part of the reason is that the servicing vehicle is loading in rockets one by one via crane.
24:52So instead of moving one pallet like HIMARS, it's moving 12 individual rockets.
24:57The HIMARS system allows the crew to be much more efficient to be ready for that next fire
25:02mission sooner.
25:06The BM-30 SMERSH has a top speed of about 37 miles per hour, and HIMARS has a speed
25:12of around 53 miles an hour.
25:14Part of the reason for that is that HIMARS is a lighter system.
25:17HIMARS only carries six rockets.
25:19The BM-30 carries 12 rockets.
25:22And so it's just a heavier, it's a heavier truck, it carries a heavier load.
25:26These systems are not defined by ground speed.
25:29They're not tanks that are trying to shatter through lines or Bradley infantry fighting
25:35vehicles that are carrying troops.
25:37The speeds of the vehicles allow for more readiness to be ready for more missions.
25:44We don't see like direct video evidence that the HIMARS has come up directly against BM-30
25:51MLRS.
25:53The U.S. has supplied 39 HIMARS launchers and the artillery, the rocket artillery they
25:59need.
26:00They've been employed by Ukraine for 18 months.
26:03Russia's lost a huge number of MLRS, well over 300 different vehicles.
26:09And those include the BM-21.
26:12There are two BM-30 SMERSHs that have been destroyed.
26:16About 80 BM-27 Uragans have been destroyed.
26:21It seems like there's two things going on.
26:23The first comes down to the Russian satellite navigation system GLONASS.
26:27We know that GLONASS is not as accurate as GPS.
26:32That may be contributing to the lack of observed pinpoint accuracy.
26:37It also is likely a failure of intelligence.
26:39The system of Russian targeting seems not to range much deeper than the Ukrainian frontlines.
26:46Instead Russia's mainly used its rockets as area attack weapons.
26:50We've found evidence that the Russians fired them at volume into Kharkiv, the country's
26:57second largest city.
26:58And this kind of encapsulates the Russian employment of MLRS.
27:02They use it primarily as an unguided brute force weapon.
27:07The Ukrainians are getting targets for HIMARS, sending it on fire missions that with the
27:13range HIMARS can fire from a safe distance behind the front lines and then it relocates
27:19and the Russians haven't figured out an effective way to deal with that yet.
27:23And so essentially it's been operating with impunity.
27:29Don't expect HIMARS to be a wonder weapon any longer.
27:33There's growing signs that the Russians are jamming the GPS signals upon which HIMARS
27:41rounds depend for their pinpoint accuracy.
27:46Missions with much smaller artillery arsenal depend on accuracy over the volume of fire
27:51that Russia can command.
27:54The single most expensive weapon on this list is the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system.
28:01The $1 billion Patriot is a ground-based mobile surface-to-air missile battery that can down
28:07crewed and uncrewed aircraft, crews and ballistic missiles.
28:12So far, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with just one.
28:17But during its July 2024 summit, NATO announced it would be providing four more Patriot systems
28:23to Ukraine.
28:25Earlier in the year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine needs at least seven of them.