- Russian turtle tanks are common
- But Russian turtle tanks based on the Ukrainian T-64 are uncommon
- So where did this one Russian T-64 turtle come from?
A Russian repair unit has transformed at least one T-64 tank into a drone-proof "turtle tank." Up-armored turtle tanks with their metal shells and other additions are commonplace all along the 1,100-km front line of Russia's 47-month wider war on Ukraine.
Up-armored turtle tanks based on T-64s aren't commonplace, however.
So where did this particular turtle come from? And does its appearance signal a wider acceptance of a tank type the Russians have neglected for years despite heavy losses of other types?
The T-64 turtle appeared in a video that circulated online this week. In the video, a member of the Oskol Repair Unit extols the virtue of the 42-ton tank that forms the basis of the do-it-yourself assault vehicle.
The mechanic points out the three-cylinder, six-piston diesel engine—a unique feature of the T-64. "Each cylinder has two pistons moving directly opposite each other," he explains. "It's one of those clever engineering solutions created by our Soviet designers."
In fact, the T-64 is a Ukrainian tank, designed by the Morozov Design Bureau and built by the Malyshev Factory—both in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. The Soviet army adopted the T-64 in the 1970s but quickly pivoted to simpler tanks, including the T-72, T-80, and variants.
Russian turtle tanks, mostly based on the abundant T-72s, first appeared in Ukraine in 2023. They now fill a special operational niche that exposes them to extreme danger. Piled high with anti-drone defenses, they tend to lead columns of less-well-protected infantry fighting vehicles or other infantry transports.
During vehicular assaults—which, to be fair, became much rarer last year—the turtles clear mines and absorb impacts from Ukrainian drones, preserving the trailing vehicles and their precious infantry passengers.
A turtle may not survive the repeated blasts, but it doesn't have to. Its purpose is to shepherd the infantry to new positions, even at the cost of itself.
Why not T-64 turtles?
The Ukrainian army inherited many of the Soviet-era T-64s following Ukraine's 1991 independence. Thirty-five years later, upgraded T-64s are still the Ukrainians' most numerous and most important tank. Hundreds are in service.
Despite losing around 4,000 tanks in action since widening its war on Ukraine in February 2022—and despite hundreds of very old T-64s sitting in open storage at bases across Russia—the Russians haven't embraced the T-64. A few former separatist formations briefly used T-64s, but even these units have mostly transitioned to T-72s, T-80s, and similar tanks as they've settled into the regular Russian army structure.
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It's not that the Russians don't need more tanks. There are virtually zero older T-62s, T-72s, T-80s and T-90s left in storage in Russia and the country's two active tank plants are struggling to produce enough new tanks to make good years of combat losses.
But the T-64s still sitting in long rows at various Russian storage bases are, as the mechanic points out, more complex than other Soviet-style tanks are. In addition to their unique engines, the T-64s also feature a different auto-loader for their 125-mm main guns compared to most Russian tanks.
The differences mean T-64s require separate maintenance infrastructure, spare parts supply chains, and specialized training—all of which the Russian army abandoned decades ago when it standardized on T-72 and T-80 variants.
Because the T-64s are more complex and also effectively orphaned by a lack of support and training infrastructure, the Russians didn't make much effort to preserve them for possible recovery and use decades after initially retiring them from active service.
So, yes, there are still more than 600 T-64s in storage in Russia—essentially a year's worth of tanks at the average rate of loss over the last few years. But no, it's not likely the Russians will reactivate any or many of them. And it's equally unlikely the T-64 turtle that the Oskol Repair Unit shows off in that video will produce many offspring.
So where did the rare T-64 turtle come from? A close observer of armor developments who goes by "T-90K" has two theories. "It's a captured T-64 they've turned into this," they proposed. Or "it's one of the few T-64s that's actually been stored properly by Russia."
The implication, for the lonely T-64, is that it might not get directly replaced if and when the front-line unit that owns it—and which also transformed it into a turtle—loses the vehicle in action.
