A pair of Ukrainian Humvees find themselves in an ambush situation against Russian forces. While maneuvering under fire, one of the vehicles hits a landmine.

If you're looking at this video and wondering why an up-armored humvee in Ukraine is fairing better than an up-armored humvee in Iraq, I'll give you the short answer. The improvised explosive devices that were pit up against the M1117s in Iraq were specifically designed by insurgent forces to defeat the armor of the vehicle. The landmines being used in Russia against Ukraine however were designed before the advent of the up-armored humvee.

It's important to remember that while the M1117 may seem like an outdated piece of technology, in this conflict it's actually finding it's true purpose. The humvee was designed specifically to enable light infantry to out maneuver Russian tanks. Those same Russian tanks the humvee was designed to defeat are the active tanks in service by the Russian military in this conflictc. So, while it may not seem to make sense to send up-armored humvees in place of MRAPs or APCs, somewhere a General officer saw a lot of soon to be retired up-armored humvees and remembered the true calling of an M1117 in military life.

The only way we could have better enabled the Ukrainians to defeat Russian armor was to start handing out A-10s to the Ukrainian Air Force.