Photos capture the crude cages Russian and Ukrainian crews are welding on their tanks and armor as a last-ditch defense

• Russian and Ukrainian troops are outfitting their tanks and fighting vehicles with crude cages.
• These defenses are a last-ditch efforts to defend against threats like drones and certain munitions.
• A retired US Army colonel said the configurations can pose a major inconvenience to soldiers.

Tanks and armored vehicles are built to withstand a certain amount of enemy firepower, but they are far from invincible. Facing growing explosive threats, often from above, Russian and Ukrainian vehicle crews are constructing their own extra layer of defense.

Troops on both sides of the war have outfitted heavy armor with netting-like cages in what appears to be a last-ditch effort against growing threats like anti-tank missiles, small drones, and artillery. A retired US Army colonel said the configurations are Hail-Mary attempts to keep armor crews from dying in combat, but they can pose a major inconvenience when it comes to operations.

"It is a psychological thing that soldiers do in combat when they want to live," Gian Gentile, a former Iraq War tank commander and the current associate director of RAND's Arroyo Center, told Insider.

The fact that some troops feel the need to do this suggests an inability to counter growing threats to vehicle operations that clearly has crews concerned.

Videos and photos that have circulated around social media in recent weeks show that both sides have outfitted their tanks and armored vehicles with these crudely built cages, some of which are elaborate and cover much of the exterior, while others appear to be more simplistic and almost resemble bird or batting cages.

—Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 27, 2023

The idea, in theory, is to create an added layer of protection against the wide range of explosives that have been used against tanks and armored vehicles over the course of Russia's roughly 17-month-long war in Ukraine.

In the early days of the invasion, Kyiv's forces made great use of should-launched weapons like the American-made FGM-148 Javelin and UK-made Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) to defend against approaching tanks and armor. Later, loitering munitions, which are small drones packed with explosives that can fly around until they identify a target, entered the battlefield and began to wreak havoc.

—OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) July 5, 2023

More recently, both sides have used FPV (first-person view) drones and drone-dropped munitions to deal damage to each other's armor. Collectively, both sides have lost thousands of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), and armored personnel carriers (APCs). But according to open-source intelligence site Oryx, which documents military equipment losses, Kyiv's forces have only lost a little over 1,500 pieces of heavy armor — compared to around 5,000 by Moscow's troops.

A 'huge inconvenience'

Improvised anti-drone armor, sometimes also referred to as a "cope cage," isn't a new phenomenon and has been observed in previous conflicts around the world. But the ones that are being spotted on the battlefield in Ukraine appear, for the most part, to look a bit more crudely made than those seen elsewhere.

Their effectiveness depends on what type of explosive they're tasked with protecting against. The cages likely would not be able to stop a shoulder-launched weapon like the Javelin or NLAW, but they might make a difference against mortar rounds dropped from quadcopters or certain loitering munitions, Gentile said.

In some cases, this extra protection has been added without inconveniencing the vehicle's operators. For instance, a video of a Ukrainian M109L self-propelled howitzer that circulated on social media earlier this month shows the vehicle equipped with cages on the side and attached to the turret, indicating that the gun's mobility may not have been impeded. The cages looked more thought out.

—OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) July 4, 2023

But videos and photos of the Russian cages tell and different story, as they appear to look more temporary and perhaps not as well planned.

In one photo of a Russian T-72B tank, the cage merely appears as a roof screen, leaving its sides exposed. Other images of Russian MT-LB armored fighting vehicles show the cages appearing to look more flimsy and without much structural integrity.

—Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 29, 2023

—Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 29, 2023

Since these cages likely provide only limited effectiveness against deadly missiles, munitions, and drones, why would soldiers feel the need to add this final layer of defense, especially if it's a hassle?

They're "fundamentally" a psychological addition for troops who just want to survive and believe the cages may just help them do that, Gentile said.

"There is some grounding that these things may have worked at one point or another," he said, which creates this psychological idea that the cages could actually work and that it's worth putting them up there just in case.

But ultimately, the cages are just a "huge inconvenience," Gentile said.

Tank commanders need to be out on top of the tank monitoring for hazards to avoid driving off a bridge or getting stuck in the mud. The cages not only hinder that visibility, but they also make it more difficult for vehicle crews to enter and exit, particularly in an emergency.

The cages also hamstring the vital combat mobility that's required on the battlefield by making it harder for the tanks to maneuver around tree-lines, along small trails, and through the woods, limiting their ability to retain camouflage and concealment. As a former tank commander himself, Gentile said simply that the cage "would drive me crazy."