Most Of Ukraine's Strv 122 Tanks Have Been Hit—And Survived
The Strv 122 is one tough tank, but warfare is evolving around it
Incredibly after two years of hard fighting, the Ukrainian army’s 21st Mechanized Brigade still has most of its Strv 122 tanks. The brigade recently posted artsy photos depicting one of the 69-ton tanks wearing a form of anti-drone “porcupine” armor around the vulnerable juncture between its turret and its chassis.
Sweden donated 10 of the 69-ton, four-person tanks way back in 2023 at a time when Ukraine’s allies were rushing to equip new Ukrainian brigades for a much-anticipated, and ultimately failed, southern counteroffensive. Ukraine also got around 100 similar Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 2A6 tanks from various European countries.
The Strv 122s were in the thick of the fighting for nearly two years. The 21st Mechanized Brigade didn’t fight in the summer 2023 counteroffensive in the south. But it did take part in another ultimately failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast starting in August 2024. Today the brigade is resting in a relatively quiet sector in northern Ukraine.
One close observer has tallied no fewer than 19 hits on the 10 Strv 122s, mostly by Russian first-person-view drones and—less often—anti-tank missiles. But those 18 hits have resulted in as few as three total write-offs. Statistically, every single Strv 122 has eaten at least one drone or missile, but the damage has almost always been fixable—albeit probably not very quickly.
