The drawbacks of the Russian 'turtle tank', a T-72 with a metal shell

@DefAviation ES 5·06·2024 · 23:37 0

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is seeing the re-emergence of forms of warfare straight out of the World War I.

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In addition to continuing the trench fighting, in April something very curious was seen in the Krasnojórivka (Donetsk) area, which looks more like the tanks of the First World War than the current tanks. The Telegram channel Warriors Ukrainian spread this image of the vehicle in question , captured by a Ukrainian drone:

There was no Russian armored vehicle with this strange appearance, which is very reminiscent of the German A7V Sturmpanzerwagen from the First World War.

The invasion of Ukraine is causing a headache for the Russian armored forces. By two years after the invasion, the Russians had already lost 2,754 tanks and 5,140 armored personnel carriers, colossal figures, especially if we take into account that In 10 years in Afghanistan, the USSR lost 147 tanks and 1,314 armored transports. The reason for these high losses in Ukraine is mainly due to portable anti-tank missiles and drones, which allow artillery fire to be directed with great precision. These images that we see here, published by AndreiBtvt, show some curious solutions that the Russians sought to better protect their tanks.

These improvised solutions may offer some protection against suicide drones or drones that drop mortar shells, but they are useless against anti-tank missiles, artillery fire, and tank fire. Ukrainians. These improvisations are explained, to a large extent, due to the fiasco of the modern T-14 Armada tank (which has not even appeared on the Ukrainian front due to its engine problems) and the destruction of the T-90M, the most modern Russian tank that has appeared on the front in Ukraine.

The Russian solution to this problem has consisted of adding a shell made of armored plants to its tanks, as we can see in this other photo published by AndreiBtvt.

The following images were posted by Special Kherson Cat on April 25 and shows what that that metal shell hides: a T-72 tank.

Ukrainian forces know these vehicles as "turtle tanks" due to their appearance. The Russians know them as "Tsar-Barbecue" or simply as "barbecues." Obviously, this additional protection creates some problems. In addition to reducing visibility for the tank crew and reducing the angle of movement of its main gun, which makes these T-72s even more vulnerable vehicles than they already were, the shell adds considerable additional weightfor which the tank engine is not prepared. This video from @Teoyaomiquu seems to suggest that these "turtle tanks" They would be used to remove mines leading armored columns:

this thing is huge. If it's role is purely plow the mines, it can work. However it's clear that it can't aim properly.

The tracks are still very vulnerable. however the FPVs are really hard to aim into the tracks, because of high chances of losing control over the drone at the… pic.twitter.com/JdIfLlPGzX

— ✙ Constantine ✙ (@Teoyaomiquu) May 5, 2024

About the vulnerability of these tanks, yesterday the 1st Assault Battalion of the 5th Separate Kiev Assault Brigade published a video showing a Russian attack with a turtle tank on the Bakhmut front. A turtle tank was destroyed after stepping on a mine:

/7. Russian attack with the use of turtle tanks on the Bakhmut front. Smoke cover is also actively used. One of the tanks hits a mine twice. https://t.co/p7ExmB39Kd pic.twitter.com/aDrPIu08xG

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) May 6, 2024

That is to say, in addition to the problems that this shell adds, the turtle tanks end up destroyed by the mines that they would theoretically have to clean. Someday someone should write a big book about all the mistakes made by the Russian armored forces in Ukraine.