Russia Is So Scared Of Ukrainian Drones, It's Stripping The Turrets Off Tanks
When you’ve lost 22,000 vehicles, converting a T-72 into an infantry carrier makes total sense
The Russians are massing troops in eastern Ukraine for a renewed attack on the fortress city of Pokrovsk. And in a major tactical swerve after a year of foot and motorcycle assaults, they’re also massing armored vehicles.
While most of the vehicles are the usual T-90, T-72, and T-80 tanks and BMP and BTR infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), there may be some real oddities in the mix. Case in point: this bizarre turret-less T-72 tank that some enterprising Russian engineers have converted into a super-protected IFV.
Having lost more than 22,000 armored vehicles and other heavy equipment in 43 months of wider war, 65% of them destroyed by drones, some Russian regiments are struggling to stay fully equipped with standard modern vehicles. Hence, the do-it-yourself curiosities like that halved T-72.
The Franken-tank, however, doesn’t only mean that Ukraine’s drone campaign is forcing Moscow to field whatever rolls. It also hints at the existential crisis of IFVs on the battlefield—their thinner armor makes them more vulnerable to drone strikes than main battle tanks.
A single FPV drone can take out an entire BMP; killing a tank, its armor 10 times as thick, would require coordinated multi-drone attacks. When you’re entering the drone kill zone, every millimeter of armor counts.
This strange new no-gun T-72 was recently spotted somewhere along the 1,100-km front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. It’s not the first of its type, but with its hundreds of millimeters of armor, it might be the ultimate example of an ex-tank turning into a tough but admittedly awkward transport for infantry.
The whole point of an IFV is to carry the infantry into battle while protecting them from artillery, missiles, and drones.
Looks don’t matter. If it rolls, and it’s got space and armor, it can make a decent IFV—however off-putting it appears at first glance.
The new odd vehicle wasn’t easy to identify—and not just because it doesn’t have a turret or a 125-millimeter gun like a standard T-72. Wrapped in razor wire and covered in drone-defeating metal spines and anti-missile reactive armor blocks—and also sporting a triangular metal roof supporting drone-jamming radio noisemakers—the vehicle looks most like a rolling scrap heap.
Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.
