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The Russian Turtle Tank Is The Weirdest Armored Vehicle Of The Ukraine War. The Craziest Thing Is, It Might Actually Work.
Early this month, Ukrainian drone operators were flabbergasted to spot, on the battlefield outside Krasnohorivka—just west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine—a Russian T-72 tank with what appeared to be a metal roof atop its hull and turret.Incredibly, the bizarre up-armored tank wasn’t a one-off. In fact, it launched a vehicular trend in the Russian army in Ukraine as more and more Russian crews came around to the idea that the strange improvised armor might actually work.
The problem is, it only works against one particular Ukrainian munition. And the Ukrainians are about to expand their arsenal with munitions the DIY tanks probably can’t defeat.
It was obvious what that three-person Russian crew outside Krasnohorivka was trying to do: put up a shield between its 51-ton tank and the thousands of explosive first-person-view drones Ukrainian forces launch every day.
It was equally obvious that the shell-like armor—which inspired the derisive “turtle tank” moniker—would probably come with serious drawbacks. Its vertical posts would prevent the tank’s turret from rotating. The bulk would impede visibility and mobility. And the installation seemingly left a gap in the front for a skilled FPV operator to fly their drone through.
Observers laughed at the awkward turtle tank. And they laughed harder when the first turtle tank survived its combat debut—an assault on Ukrainian positions in Krasnohorivka—only to apparently get blown up in an artillery barrage targeting its base in Donetsk.
But the turtle tanks kept coming. Three weeks later, they’re a common sight all along the eastern front of Russia’s 26-month wider war on Ukraine.
Often sporting anti-drone radio jammers on their shells and mine-clearing rollers on their hulls, the tanks have led several assaults on Krasnohorivka. At least one was damaged and immobilized; Russian troops towed it off the battlefield.
Most of the turtle tanks belong to the 5th Motor Rifle Brigade, a former Ukrainian separatist unit that joined the Russian army last year. The 5th Motor Rifle Brigade has always made do with whatever weapons it can beg, borrow or steal.
But now turtle tanks are also showing up in the workshops of better-equipped Russian units—including the 90th Tank Division, which is lurking around the ruins of the eastern city of Avdiivka, possibly waiting to exploit the gap Russian troops recently opened in Ukrainian lines around the village of Ocheretyne.
The Russian army isn’t always particularly careful with its equipment and the lives of its troops, but it isn’t—as an institution—stupid. If turtle tanks are proliferating, it’s probably because they’re solving some problem.
“I know people are laughing at this, but I don't think it is a crazy adaptation,” wrote Rob Lee, an analyst with the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. “The Russians are adapting to the particular conditions of the battlefield.”
The Russian Turtle Tank Is The Weirdest Armored Vehicle Of The Ukraine War. The Craziest Thing Is, It Might Actually Work.
The turtle tank is designed to stop drones—and apparently does just that. But what happens when Ukrainian troops start firing more artillery and missiles?
www.forbes.com
