As the war in Ukraine drags on, Russia is optimising its forces for positional warfare, deploying monstrous vehicles to breach Ukraine’s dense defences and minefields.
In early April, Ukrainian drone operators spotted a Russian T-72 tank with crude metal modifications near the city of Krasnohorivka, west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Forbes reported.
The vehicle is reportedly capable of repelling strikes, such as directed attack by First Person View (FPV) drones and missiles. Some are even equipped with radio jammers. Such modified combat vehicles are the most striking examples of Russia’s innovative approach in the protracted war.
Russian media call the invention “tsar’s BBQs,” while Ukrainians describe them as “turtle tanks.”
The BBQs successfully survive the attack as Ukrainian troops are forced to use a huge number of locally-made FPV drones amid a shortage of artillery and anti-tank missiles.
Everyone laughs at their construction of the barns, but in fact they work like Hell. A lot of FPVs [FPV drones] were spent on one tank.
Other monstrous vehicles
Another type of such vehicles is the Porcupine tank. It was reportedly targeted with about 40 “kamikaze” drones and artillery. However, it successfully completed the combat mission, according to Russian media. Equipped with mine-triggering metal rollers, the vehicles “are being used as a mine-clearance vehicle ahead of armoured assault columns,” weapons historian Matthew Moss wrote.
Besides tanks protected by additional sheets of metal, the list of monstrous vehicles was supplemented by the Multipurpose Tracked Armoured Vehicle (MT-LB) with the same armour modification. Some compare it to the German heavy tank A7V (Sturmpanzerwagen A7V) of the World War I era.
Russian troops modify not only tanks, but other vehicles as well. For example, a TOS-1A Heavy Flamethrower System was spotted near Kupiansk, Kharkiv region. Also known as the TOS-1A Solntsepyok, it is designed to suppress covered and open targets with thermobaric rockets.
Until Ukrainian forces find a way to effectively counter the new Russian vehicles, the latter will continue to pose a threat to Ukrainian defence during the intensified offensive.
