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Rare B1 Centauro Tank Destroyer Spotted With Ukraine’s 78th Air Assault Brigade
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Rare footage of Ukraine's Italian B1 Centauro wheeled tank destroyers has surfaced, offering a rare look at a platform seldom seen in public since arriving in Ukrainian service in autumn 2025, according to Army TV on May 22.
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The video, released by the Defense Forces' media platform, showed Centauros operated by Ukraine's 78th Separate Air Assault Brigade.
Visible modifications on the vehicles include:
standard anti-drone grille armor;
a Ukrainian protective "hood" canopy fitted over the turret;
additional "dandelion"-type screens layered on top of the factory configuration.
According to crew testimony in the report, the platform's longest recorded shot in Ukrainian service stands at 11 kilometers, fired from a closed position by a gunner with the call sign "Khilya." The round reportedly struck a building sheltering Russian troops.
The tank commander, identified by the call sign "Director," characterized the Centauro's internal communications system as substantially better than that of Soviet-era T-72 and T-64 tanks operated previously by Ukrainian crews. He attributed the difference in part to the Italian platform's quieter engine.
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"The internal communication here is many times better. On both the ”72” and the ”64” there were times we couldn't hear anything—neither outside, nor between ourselves. When the driver can't hear the commander, that's a disaster, a terrible disaster, you might as well stand and cry," he explained.
The commander also endorsed the "tank destroyer" designation often applied to the B1 Centauro, citing the platform's accuracy.
He noted that direct tank-on-tank engagements are now uncommon along the front, with armored vehicles forced to break through saturated FPV drone zones and Molniya suicide drone screens before reaching an enemy vehicle.
The B1 Centauro is an Italian-built 8x8 wheeled tank destroyer originally fielded by the Italian Army in the early 1990s. Core specifications include:
a 105 mm rifled main gun developed by Oto Melara;
a four-person crew;
an Iveco-Oto Melara chassis produced by the CIO consortium;
a primary mission profile centered on reconnaissance and anti-armor operations, trading tracked-tank protection for higher road mobility.
The first public images of B1 Centauros in Ukrainian service appeared in autumn 2025, with anti-drone screens already fitted. Reports about a possible transfer of the platform to Kyiv had circulated as early as 2023.
Since the first sighting, the Centauros have been documented in Ukrainian footage only on rare occasions. The total number of vehicles delivered to Ukraine and the scale of their deployment on the battlefield have not been disclosed.
Defense Express added that available footage indicates Ukrainian crews are primarily using the Centauro for indirect fire, a doctrinal shift driven by the density of unmanned systems operating along the line of contact.
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The shift toward indirect fire and the layering of cage armor on Western-supplied platforms reflects a broader pattern across the front, where drone saturation has reshaped how armored vehicles operate on both sides.
Russia has rebuilt its T-72B3M main battle tank around battlefield lessons from Ukraine, with a 2025-model variant adding factory-installed cage screens and broader application of Relikt explosive reactive armor across the turret.
The upgrade also removed vulnerable external fuel containers, added side skirts similar to those of the T-90M, and integrated electronic warfare systems intended to disrupt drone control links.
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