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Russian Tanks Are Falling Apart—Not From Ukrainian Fire, But Their Own Armor
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
Russian tank crews report severe mechanical issues caused by improvised add-on armor structures—known colloquially as “grills” or “mangals”—and a growing shortage of factory-made explosive reactive armor (ERA) modules, according to materials published by Russian military vehicle researcher Andrei Tarasenko on November 9.
A Russian tanker cited in Tarasenko’s publication said that makeshift two-tiered “grills,” welded onto turrets and hulls to protect against drones, often overload tank transmissions and side gearboxes, sometimes failing after only a few kilometers of movement.
“When they made a ‘tsar-mangal’ from cables, it didn’t last even ten kilometers before one of the side gearboxes failed,” the tanker explained. “If you build these frames from the turret, not the hull, the turret drives burn out, and manual rotation becomes impossible.”
The source also described a critical shortage of modern ERA modules such as the Relikt system. Crews reportedly substitute these with improvised containers filled with explosive materials from demining charges.
“In the turret cheeks there’s homemade armor from garage workshops—a galvanized-sheet mold filled with explosive from the UR-77 Meteorite. It works maybe half the time,” the tanker said.
Earlier, Russia patented a foldable anti-drone screen for tanks that closely mirrors Ukraine’s “hood” armor—an improvised protective mesh used to defend against FPV and loitering munitions.
The Russian military’s Karbyshev Academy claimed the design is up to 1.5 times more cost-effective than existing solutions, despite it being nearly identical to what Ukrainian forces have fielded for over a year.
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