Israeli tanks massing near the country’s border with Gaza are sporting a curious new piece of armor that reflects the changing nature of conflict as off-the-shelf drones become battlefield fixtures.
Photos of the Merkava tanks taken on Sunday show that some now have strange metal roofs attached to the top of their guns. Israel, like Russia before it, is apparently using so-called “cope cages.” Experts said this may be a bid to defend against quadcopter drones carrying grenades and other munitions.
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Drones have changed how wars are fought—not just the expensive and massive drones like the American Reaper or the Turkish Bayraktar, but smaller and cheaper quadcopter drones as well, rigged for both surveillance and ordinance. The Islamic State was one of the early pioneers of cheap consumer drones turned to war, but the tactic has been adopted by armies across the planet including Ukraine. The situation in Israel and Gaza is no different. Hamas opened up its attacks on Israel by using quadcopter drones to drop improvised explosives on four communication towers along the Israel-Gaza border.
The term “cope cages” was popularized when photo and video of improvised screens started appearing on Russian tanks in the early days of its invasion into Ukraine, although the technique was first used in 2020 in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The term was initially meant as a pejorative, but since then multiple militaries—including Ukraine—have adopted the improvised armor. Analysts like Rob Lee have begun calling them “anti-UAV” screens or “roof screens.” Now, Israel has begun adding slatted roofs to some of its armor.
According to Jakub Janovský, an open-source intelligence analyst who has worked with Bellingcat, the cages on the Markeva’s are most likely to protect against drone-dropped munitions.
Tanks are heavily armored and come with a range of defenses. Many have reactive armor that detonates an explosive charge meant to neutralize a munition before it can penetrate the rest of the tank. Others, like the Israeli Merkava, have what’s called active protection systems. The Merkava’s Trophy system tracks incoming rocket and missile attacks then fires a small spread of explosive projectiles to intercept the munition and detonate it before it hits the tank.
“Merkava tanks don’t have [explosive reactive armor] and Trophy is designed against RPGs and [anti-tank guided missiles],” Janovský told Motherboard. “Using them against approaching drones…would need at least software and configuration changes—assuming that is doable without exceeding the number of false detections, which would result in Trophy wasting its limited ammo.”
Tanks also have some well-known vulnerabilities. Older models like the T-80s and T-64s that Russia deployed in Ukraine are especially vulnerable from an attack by air. Weapons like the Javelin made quick work of a lot of Russian armor, for example. Fancy protection systems also haven’t done a great job of protecting tanks from cheap quadcopter drones flying overhead and dropping an improvised explosive on one of the weakest parts of a tank. That’s what Russia learned in Ukraine, and what Israel is preparing for outside of Gaza.
Janovský said the cages are an improvisation that’s “not a good long-term solution because they provide limited protection and only to part of the tank. At least with Merkava tanks, the crew can enter or exit the tanks via their rear hatch and not be bothered with the cage complicating entry or exit via the turret.”
Seeing the effectiveness of cheap quadcopters against its own forces in Ukraine, Russia has also rushed to manufacture the drones by the hundreds. On state TV, Moscow recently showed off a bread factory that was converted into a drone manufacturer to keep up with demand. By the same token, nations including Russia and the U.S. are developing a wide range of anti-drone defenses for vehicles and infantry.
The sight of old Russian tanks with slatted roofs welded on to the top of them was derided at the time by observers, but both sides began to use the tactics. The metal roofs may seem silly—mere “cope” in the face of new weapons—but they appear to be effective. At a 2023 arms show in Moscow, many bits of armor came with roof screens added by the manufacturer.
