The so-called ‘cope cage’ has been a thing since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With the proliferation of top attack munitions, drone dropped munitions and subsequently first person view (FPV) kamikaze munitions ways of protecting valuable armoured fighting vehicles were sought. This evolved as cages over the top of tanks’ turrets and later with some vehicles being near-fully enclosed by wire cages, sometimes with hanging chains.
In early April Russian ‘engineers’ took the ‘cope cage’ to its next level, completely enclosing an entire tank in sheet metal. While this might look ridiculous the practice is a time-honoured one with the concept of spaced armour developing as early as the First World War, when the French augmented the Schneider CA1 with some forward armour panels. Spaced armour is intended to reduce the penetrating power of kinetic and explosive penetrators.
At least one Russian tank, a T-72, has been seen near totally enclosed by sheet metal rather than a cage. Various imagery shows a tank encased in a trapezoidal steel structure, giving the vehicle the look of a shed on tracks. Ukrainian social media has seen the tank described as the ‘turtle tank’ (танку черепашці) or the ‘Blyatmobile’ while on Russian telegram channels the tanks is often referred to as ‘Tsar Mangal’ (Царь мангал) or Tsar’s BBQ/grill. The odd vehicle was first spotted during a recent attack on Ukrainian positions around Krasnohorivka, in Donetsk. It was seen in video posted on 8 April, from a Ukrainian overwatch drone, leading an attacking column of Russian armoured fighting vehicles delivering troops forward. It has been hypothesised that the sheet metal structure was built to protect troops riding on the tank’s hull. Notably the tank is also fitted with a KMT-6 mine plough.
While the turtle tank survived the operation during which it was first seen several days later it appears to have been destroyed by a Ukrainian artillery strike. Ukrainian overwatch and reconnaissance drones tracked the tank back to its base and the location was reportedly cross-referenced by a Ukrainian OSINT and geo-location team Cyber Boroshno, against open source video of it inside a warehouse posted by Russian sources.
In the video we can better see the construction of the tank’s shell. It appears there are 4 corner support columns holding up a frame work onto which the shell as been welded. At the front of the shell there is a white painted piece of shaped metal that looks it could be from the roof of a commercial panel van adds some aerodynamic finesse. It appears there may be an internal box with sheet metal of the sides of the shell providing a second layer at the rear on the tank’s engine deck. Perhaps a space for infantry dismounts.
The drone footage shared on 9 April showed the aftermath of the strike on the Russian armoured unit’s base with the battle damage assessment footage appearing to show the turtle tank in the wreckage of the building.
The armour shell constructed by Russian engineers likely offered some protection against FPV drones but at the cost of the crew’s ability to observe its surroundings, the ability to traverse its gun and likely its mobility.
The turtle tank may look ridiculous but it is a prime example of in-field adaptation and evolution of concepts around how to protect vehicles. The cope cage, which first emerged in Syria, have become more and more mainstream with both Russia and Ukraine employing them, who knows perhaps the armour shell of the turtle tank may indicate a future direction of development which might eventually become less ad-hoc and ludicrous looking.
Update 16/04/24:
Russian ‘engineers’ in the Krasnohorivka area appear to have either rebuilt or built another ‘turtle tank’ with a slightly different profile and an electronic warfare device mounted on top to counter drones. Stills from a UAV feed:
Update 17/04/24: A better look at the Turtle Tank Mk2. It appears to be constructed from corrugated sheet metal and is fully enclosed, preventing any traverse of the tank’s turret. It has been speculated that Russian engineers took a damaged tank which could not move its turret and built a breacher vehicle. This later was iteration of the Turtle Tank also has a mine plough like the first.
It’s unclear if the Mk2 is a construction on another tank or the shell rebuilt on the same vehicle following damage. With a fully enclosed shell it seems unlikely that the vehicle is being used for transporting troops instead it appears to be enclosed to protect its EW kit and act as a mine clearance vehicle ahead of armoured columns. The shell would in theory give all around protection against drone attack. The footage of the vehicle, said to have been filmed on around 15 April, shows the vehicle on the move, it survive several near misses from artillery it also shows the vehicle making a wrong turn probably due to is severely restricted visibility.
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The Armourers Bench 