Ukraine and a New Kind of War (Part 2)
Russian T-90s with "Cope Cages"
Perhaps you’ve seen images like this Russian tank, with a funny cage on top. If you didn’t know, the Russians found it necessary to build them on their tanks and vehicles as countermeasure to drone strikes. These are called “Cope Cages” – and both sides of the conflict have seen fit to use them. Unfortunately, for the Russians (And fortunate for the rest of the world) Ukraine create tactics of “double tapping” a caged vehicle. (Jankowicz, May 2024) The first drone burns through the cage, and the second one finishes the job as shown here. Youtuber Engineer React Breaks it down for us.
And yet, what is going on here. A Ukrainian drone with a cope cage? Why?
A Ukrainian Drone with a “Cope Cage”
For the answer, the excellent Substack page
will show you many examples of drone against drone dogfights. The Ukrainians started it first, ramming their cheap drones into much more expensive Russian ones. Just like with tanks, the Russians tried placing cope cages on the vital parts of their drones. Putting a protective cage around a drone is nothing new, but you also want to protect your drone not only form other hunter-killer dogfighting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), but from electronic attack.
So, not only does your cope cage need for your drone need to be physically strong, but it also needs to be made of certain materials. This is called a “Faraday Cage”. It sounds a little more optimistic than “cope cage” does it not? Using some good old-fashioned high school science, Ukrainians have been able to make their drones a bit more survivable on the modern battlefield. (Post, November 2024)
Faraday cages and coverings on drone sensors can protect from EAImagine if they didn’t have to use aluminum foil and chicken wire, but had the full support of engineers from say . . . Raytheon or Northrop Grumman. It could be a totally different war which would get out of hand much too fast for Russians to counter. Already Russia is looking for ways to counter the naval drones that have decimated their fleet. And we will talk more about that soon.
Works Cited
Jankowicz, Mia Russia is covering armored vehicles with elaborate anti-drone 'cope cages.' Video shows them getting hit anyway.. Business Insider. 8 May 2024
Post, Kollen, (02 November 2024). Deep Dive: Faraday cage use in Russia-Ukraine drones". Counteroffensive Pro
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