Heavy casualties suffered by both sides in the Ukraine war have ignited a race to replenish vehicles lost in combat and protect those that remain operational.
With Ukraine’s supply of Western-donated vehicles beginning to dry up after its counter-offensive failed to produce a breakthrough, and with Russia losing hundreds of tanks in failed eastern assaults, engineers are using every means at their disposal to plug the gaps in their forces.
In some cases, they have had to reach deep into storage facilities and scrap heaps, pulling out weapons systems and parts of vehicles that have not seen combat for decades and grafting them together to create entirely new vehicles.
The Telegraph has analysed imagery and video from the Ukrainian front lines to identify several of these new creations, ranging from pick-up trucks fitted with helicopter rocket pods, to tanks with makeshift cages.
They have been nicknamed Frankentanks.
Technicals
Russia’s generals have relied heavily on Soviet-era rocket artillery systems such as the BM-21 Grad to provide fire support for its ground forces, and BMP-1 armoured personnel carriers to act as infantry fighting vehicles.
Such outdated vehicles, many sporting little more than steel plate as armour protection, have been easy pickings for Ukranian drone operators and troops armed with sophisticated Western anti-tank missiles. In an effort to replace its stocks of MRLS and infantry-fighting-vehicles, Russia has turned to up-gunning domestic vehicles.
On the Zaporizhzhia front, soldiers of the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Division were filmed using a UAZ Patriot pick-up truck as a makeshift multiple rocket launch system (MRLS).
The truck had been fitted with a UB-32 57mm rocket pod more commonly seen hanging from the wings of attack helicopters and fighter jets, and was filmed providing in-direct fire.
Other UAZ trucks have been pictured with mounted Kornet anti-tank missiles, and another was shown with an improvised launcher for S-8 rockets – also borrowed from aircraft, with a sighting system adapted from a mortar.
But the Russians are not alone in modifying civilian vehicles into weapons of war.
Near Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops converted a BMW 3-series into a mobile rocket launcher.
A black model of the German four-door was filmed launching a salvo of missiles at enemy positions from the side of a muddy road.
Ukraine’s 114th Territorial Defense Brigade said its men had “fried enemies” using Soviet-designed 122mm Grad rockets fired from the car.
The Frankentanks
While the Ukrainians can lean on their Western allies for tanks, or at least spare parts, the Russian forces have had to dig deep into their stocks of antiquated, Soviet-era equipment.
With Russia now believed to have lost at least 2,400 tanks, including hundreds destroyed in attacks on the eastern town of Avdiivka, engineers have had to get creative.
Many of their creations are centred around upgrading the MTLB armoured personnel carrier, which dates back to the 1950s, into an infantry-fighting vehicle role.
In one example a soviet 2M-3 naval turret containing twin 25mm cannon was mounted to the rear of the hull. Footage of this vehicle in action shows it to be highly unstable when firing, calling into question its combat effectiveness.
Another MTLB was fitted with a helicopter rocket pod and an 80mm mortar – both totally exposed and unprotected.
In another video, an MTLB with a pair of S-8 rocket pods fires a salvo of rockets.
Images of several MTLB’s with the same modifications being moved by train suggest that these are not always thrown together by individual crews, but are being produced in dedicated workshops away from the front.
Ukraine has not shied away from the Frankentank either. Pictures surfaced of a machine dubbed the Terminator being constructed from parts of captured vehicles. Consisting of a T-62 hull modified with the turret and 60mm cannon of BMP-2, coated in reactive armour blocks for better protection against anti-tank missiles.
Cage armour
The proliferation of drones on the battlefield, both those modified to drop grenades and bombs from above and the so-called FPV drones that can hit targets with pinpoint accuracy, has forced both sides to find new ways to protect their tanks.
Recently, the Ukrainains have been seen using detailed decoy vehicles, made of wood or even sometimes inflatable fakes, left out in the open to draw in enemy strikes away from real targets.
Battlefield engineers have also experimented with cage and slat armour, which is intended to detonate drones and explosives away from the hulls of vehicles.
This “armour” is typically little more than poles and wire mesh, but could be enough to prevent a drone from dropping a grenade into an open hatch and destroying the tank with a devastating secondary explosion.
This type of protection is not new, however, and was first introduced by the Wehrmacht in the Second World War, when it typically appeared on the sides of vehicles to stop incoming rockets.
On the battlefields of Ukraine, these cages are usually seen fitted above the top face of the turret, where a tank’s armour is usually thinnest.
In one extreme attempt to deter drone attacks, a Russian tank crew was seen with the cage armour fixed to poles welded to the hull, preventing the turret from fully rotating.
While more closely associated with Russian tankers, Ukrainian troops have modified even their most advanced Western battle tanks with extra armour, such is the threat from Russia’s drones.
Of the few pictures to emerge of Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 tanks on the ground during Ukraine’s summer offensive, several showed vehicles modified with extra slat armour and reactive armour blocks.
The use of the armour, dubbed Cope Cages by external observers, has spread beyond the conflict in Ukraine.
When Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza, they did so with cage armour designed to counter Hamas drones.
