Russia's Turtle Tanks Are Evolving 

Thanks for watching guys, this is I think at the moment the most comprehensive video looking at appearances of these tanks. Sources and full article available here - armourersbench.com/2024/05/12/the-turtle-tank-evolves/ Thanks - Matt.

War in 21st Century Expectation: Lazers and Robots Reality: Turtle Tank

I wonder how long it takes, till it evolves to a full scale medieval siege tower

Appears the Killdozer is making a comeback

We welded fences and bed frames onto US Army tanks in Iraq....until they came up with grills

Russia's war thunder tree gonna look like mad max vechiles

That ain't a turtle, that's a tank evolving into a crab, the ultimate form.

- Captain! There is a barn over there! - And? - It's charging at us!

The most interesting thing is that this is an ingenious solution in the current realities, when drones are thrown into the roof.

“But sir we can’t see the other 350 degrees…” “Don’t worry, you’re only going forward.”

Remember, it’s not stupid if it works.

Seems like the bigger solution would be to disable the drones before they can get in range rather than to beef up the tanks As a side note, I think people all assumed that future wars would be fought with the most elite tech, but underestimated the sustained cost of said tech. In both of the world wars, as the conflict stretched out, more and more cheaper solutions were utilized and we're seeing it again here

I've heard it called 'standoff armor,' and it has been used on tanks since WW1, when some British tanks were equipped with wire cages to prevent the enemy from heaving grenades onto the vulnerable roof. AP rounds will punch through this add-on armor like tissue paper, but many shaped-charge and high explosive shells will detonate on the thin supplemental armor instead of against the hull of a tank.

It looks more and more like Mad Max. Every tank becomes a unique piece of hardware.

Dang, the hetzer made a return

I'll admit I'm not upset to see the good ol' tank destroyer making a return.

Everybody gangsta till the shed starts shooting high explosive

The assault gun concept returns, didn't see that coming.

So, MADMAX is evolving from a work of fiction to a documentary 😅.

In the drone world, FPV stands for “first-person view” and it means that, as the pilot, you can see what the drone sees. It suddenly makes you more mobile than ever before and lets you see things that could have been missed from the ground, like flying over the treetops or under bridges. Most modern drones include a camera and the ability to transmit a live feed to a smartphone. Technically, nearly every drone is an FPV drone but that definition is changing.

I love that the design looks like a tank that's smashed through a barn and had the roof comically stuck on its turret. I bet that's how it was invented.

Let's just go full circle and start making casemates.

That’s the difference between making military hardware immediately applied and tested in the field, and making them in a boardroom and designing them to look cool to be sold on brochures. What works ain’t that glamorous but gets the job done, what sucks is expensive to make and is sold to people who have the money to spend to look threatening but dread having to lose the equipment in a real fight - making it money going down the drain.

This is just an ad-hoc form of spaced armour, and spaced armour works well to defend against certain types of munitions. This style of armour will likely become broadly adopted if it works well, although it will be better engineered to allow for better visibility and turret traverse.

Just because a strategy is old doesn't mean it's obsolete.

Einstein said that whatever weapons WWIII would be fought with, WWIV would be fought with rocks and sticks. Bet he never thought WWIII would be fought with corrugated metal garden sheds with extra chicken wire...

One idea I had was a rotating shaft with flailing chains orbiting the tank, like a carousel or maypole. Replacement chains can be installed by anyone too

The thing I never understood is this. I don't know why they didn't just weld the giant plate to protect the engine deck, and well the giant box directly onto the turret itself so that you could get full turret rotation while still getting the full protection for the areas that you need. They are sacrificing almost 180° if not more of their turret rotation capability and most of their visibility in exchange for drone protection. Seeing as that armor will not stop a javelin or any other anti-tank rocket

I didn't expect a T-72 tank to evolve into an apc with a smoothbore cannon

The Elefant and ISU-122 are making a comeback

Smarter mines or mines that wait a couple seconds for the roller to pass by.or a mine that waits for the second passover to detonate.

This reminds me more and more about Marvin Heemeyer's Killdozer.

can't wait for these to be added to warthunder

Its one of those things that despite being ugly, inefficient and unwieldy, are still used simply because they work for the intended purpose, and there isn't any better alternative. Won't help you much against APDS though.

It's almost Skynet vs. Mad Max at this point, and it's kind of hilarious how the war in Ukraine becomes simultaneously more high and low-tech.

history repeats itself, a toaster on tracks is again trying to breach the trench warfare stalemate

I do not speak the language well enough, so I will write through a translator, I hope I will be able to convey the meaning. The bottom line is that this is not like any other war that you are used to seeing, there are no lightning and fast offensives or superiority of one side over the other. This is a very difficult and slow war of attrition, where fierce battles are fought for every km of the front, in this regard, most of the troops on both sides dig in some regions where they can stay for a very, very long time, global offensives with a large movement are rare. Why am I saying all this? Due to the inability to advance and break through the defenses, tanks become an easy target, a little step to the left or right and you are insignificant, minefields are everywhere, drones and artillery, so soldiers on the ground come up with means that will at least slightly increase the survival rate of their tanks. I'm sure people don't quite understand what I'm talking about, you probably think, well, there are active protection complexes, you can equip tanks with technological modules and everything so that they are not an easy mess, but the fact is that 1) you need to develop this and put it into production, since there has never been such a need before it was not, 2) it will come out in decent money, but it will not give any security guarantees. You also need to understand that such turtles can be outdated tanks, or tanks with technical problems, this, no matter how stupid it may sound, is just convenient, any welder on the spot can upgrade the car the way it is needed right here and now. Whatever tanks entered this war, they are doomed to complete failure, since there were no such wars and the tanks were absolutely not ready for them, all leopards, Abrams, Leclerc, challengers and so on, these are all wonderful machines of their time, but time has changed and this war clearly shows that the the approach to tank building that was previously completely incorrect now. You can laugh and joke, but believe me, you don't know what this war is, your idea is a maximum representation of the picture from the telegram channels, but you don't know what it really is, it's not what you used to see before this time, it doesn't look like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, This is not like the companies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, this is a completely new war. Of course, both the Russian side and the Ukrainian side have disadvantages, flaws, there is always room to grow, the Russian economy is inferior to the United States, so the United States most likely has more modern and technological weapons, but this plays almost no role in such a positional war. Believe me, the war has been going on for 2 years and both sides have huge military experience, they are not fools, if something is being done, then it must be done, no matter how ridiculous it looks from the outside. I wrote all this so that you understand that war is not a toy, it looks to you like a shooting game somewhere far away, well, war is much scarier than you might think, so every, even the most ridiculous thing, if it helps save the life of 1 person, then it has already been done it's not in vain, believe me, a beautiful picture is cool, all this cool and modern technology, stylish, futuristic and technological, but in the conditions of a "dirty war", and not exhibitions and landfills, all this beauty has not surrendered to anyone, like all this technology, they burn from mines and from drones, like leopards 2a6, so are the old t-64 and t-72, they all burn the same, if they wanted to destroy them, no one will leave.

Dealing with an engine issue must be hell.... they must have to dismantle and rebuild the outer shell for servicing etc....

Me: I spotted tank! The one guy holds an anti-tank launcher: okay... wdym it's just a house Tank: it's working!

During WW2, United States soldiers (and I'm guessing soldiers from every country involved) attached sandbags, cement, and even furniture to their tanks to add extra protection. The army actually did a study regarding the practice and found that the amount of protection added was negligible, and in some cases detrimental, but the moral boost it gave the soldiers was well worth the drawbacks.

Everyone is joking about it... But it's working...

Very interesting and helpful.

The sheds look like they’re sometimes being used for camouflage too, to blend in with local rubble.

*"This isn't even my final form!"* 😆

The protection is good and practical against drones but the trade off is massive.

Excellent presentation with good research. Thank you. They are actually starting to look like the American T95 Doom Turtle super heavy tank.

"Tanks are obsolete" *Tank equips armor effective against munitions it will encounter*

There's some very confused Farmers out there when they woke up and realized the roof of their sheds are missing.

why not plant some timed mines, to account the delay between the mine sweeper part and the tank behind it?

I wonder if the odd shapes affect sensor fused munitions and things like the millimetre wave seekers on brimstone?

This just shows how big of a problem cheap and easy to manufacture FPV drones have become on the modern battlefield.

I consider the reason why this works is because Russia and Ukraine have such vast terrain that need to be crossed. In dense and urban areas I see the downsides would take over.

Having watched more than one person talk about these, people with actual military experience and some tankers who have since retired, it really seems like these do the job pretty well unless Ukrainians just start hitting every other vehicle in the column and ignoring the turtle tank until they can get a proper weapon on it, arty or an anti tank missile. Those sorts of weapons will just ignore the shell completely, but the shell works pretty well against drones, so if defenders try and use drones against them, it is not as horrible an idea as it would seem at first glance.

When I first saw one of these "turtles", I immediately remembered that they have a Maus at Kubinka tank museum.

1980: George miller: "Yes this is going to happen in the future of course after a full war!" 2024: *Mad Max Music intensifies.*

The initial reaction I had to these modifications was that the Russian tank turret is now limited in its ability to traverse to engage targets to the flanks or rear. They may as well bring back the SU series of casemated guns, no turrets and a built-in turtle back!

they laugh and laugh and then they cry. The Western powers will never learn. Never underestimate the Russian's ingenuity. Simple but effective.

Decent for defense breaching and or modified APC. Limited driving visibility, lack of cannon angle range and possible limited mobility ( awkward size, added weight, large profile ) will be a challenge. Can FBVs use double charges without destroying themselves?

Russian tanks look like they were made by raiders from Fallout.

Love/hate to see that crossouts spaced Armour meta is actually realistic under certain conditions, looks like when it comes to anti-drone precautions this will be the new norm for those without electronic defences

I tend to call these one of two names: tutel, or the garden shed.

It's quite sad how long it takes western tank manufacturers to add cameras for better view, and then russians just use webcams and link those to an indoor screen to get around the limited vision of their tanks.

Turtle Tank needs a theme song.

Are we finally returning to the golden age of armored vehicles? Casemate Tanks? What a time to be alive.

good work

When there hasn't been a real air war, and nobody really owns the skies yet, you get this silliness. Enough tandem-warhead missiles will make turtles obsolete again.

Amazing to see how evolution works in span of days instead of years or decades.

The tank appears at 4:00 actually have 2 part clip showing it taking multiple fpv drone and keep moving like nothing happens.

I really can't wait to see what effect this has on the evolution of armored warfare

It sure makes them a sitting duck for an attack from anywhere but the front.

That's not done in tank plants. That's just creativity of soldiers on font. That's hand-made things and each tank is unique.

Your cope cage has evolved, you now have a turtle shell!

I guess the next step might be added Earth onto the metal shell, using basically unlimited protection material ,the crews could ship on again with a shovel after battle.

giving me A7V/Saint-Chamond vibes with the limited range of the turret

Holy crap we are going old school with tank design again. 4:30 It looks like ww1 Saint Chamond tank with a mine roller in the front.

And people were joking about why all tanks in warhammer look like bricks, they work and tank shots? Perfect.

Whichever side fields 5000 stugs at once will overwhelm the drones and they’ll “win”.

Business Idea: Turtle Tank after-market pre-manufactured kits.

If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.

I been telling y'all. They gonna slap ERA on those turtles.

The vulnerable part is the tracks. Drones should damage tracks. Then steal the tank with the amo. Remember these tanks can not see to the side. They can not turn the turret.

Blyatmobiles!

You can tell when those jammers effect the drone within 25-50ft of the tank

It wouldn't be all that difficult or complex to make two separate shield cage combos one for the turret and one for the main body of the tank that droops slightly in front of the tracks. This would allow the turret to turn 360° while still maintaining drone protection

Its amazing how quick people adapt to field conditions like this.

It looks rather postapocalyptic, but seems it works.

This actually reminds me of russian game called Crossout i used to play some time ago. In the game you could actually build your own vehicle with various parts and basically it looked very similiar to these improvised setups. Especially one time javelin type of weapon was favored and people started to counter it by straping some more armor on the roof.

Thanks for explaining what fpv is

Fascinating development. Drones are cheap and difficult to stop, but compared to a kinetic projectile they have barely any penetrative power. I wonder what the next gen of tanks will look like.

The Hetzer returneth. God the tank at 4:12 looks fucking sick. I'd love to make that thing with LEGO or COBI bricks.

General dynamics = we think that upgrade will cost about 100 billion, sir. Some random Russian guy = get me a welding machine, electrodes, bottle of vodka, as much sheet metal and mesh you can find, pack of cigarettes' too. DAVAAAJ, SYKA!

I recognized the design : those are A-team trucks covered with thin sheet of metal by barracuda 😂

Nice garden shed...

Looks like shack on tracks. MAD MAX STYLE!

it's much harder to target vulnerable spots because you can't see them i think they also hide drone jamming equipment which is hard to destroy because you can't see it either

regardless of politics, this is fascinating, they look like elefant/ferdinand german anti-tank during ww2

"Sir, we're being attacked by a tool shed, chicken cage and something from Mad Max.

I love the layered shopping cart look.

4:44 put hens inside the cages, youll get also a supply tank!!!!

It feels like the Interwar period, when people were designing all different designs and seeing what sticks. The Turtle tank might just be a very early version of something just seen as default in the future.