Ukraine's New Italian Tank Destroyers Have One Serious Flaw
Very thin armor
Sometime this year, Italy quietly donated to Ukraine an undisclosed number of Centauro B1 tank destroyers armed with 105-millimeter cannons. Now official photos confirm the eight-wheeled vehicles, rendered surplus in Italy by the advent of the new Centauro 2, are assigned to the Ukrainian 78th Air Assault Regiment.
The regiment has been defending Sumy Oblast in northern Ukraine.
Sumy was a hot spot earlier this year but has grown much quieter as Russia has concentrated its forces in eastern Ukraine for the siege of Pokrovsk. The change in Russia’s focus allowed both sides to redeploy forces from Sumy.
That has left the 78th Air Assault Regiment and its secondhand tank destroyers to keep an eye out for possible Russian incursions into Sumy. The stakes are fairly low relative to the apocalyptic clash of armies occurring in and around Pokrovsk.
That’s good news for the 26-ton Centauros’ four-person crews.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Trench Art to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.