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South Korea Tests Anti-Drone Cage Armor on K2 Black Panther Tanks Amid FPV Drone Threat.
Open-source images circulating in late December appear to show Republic of Korea Army K2 Black Panther tanks fitted with improvised anti-drone cages during live-fire training. The sighting suggests Seoul is quietly testing low-cost defenses against FPV drones, a threat reshaping armored warfare worldwide.
Open-source imagery widely circulating on South Korean social media since 25 December, and initially disseminated via the Facebook channel Jonghoon Park, appears, in the absence of any official confirmation from the authorities, to show Republic of Korea Army K2 Black Panther main battle tanks fitted with improvised anti-drone protective cages during a recent armored training activity. These photos, shared across local defence forums and social platforms, place the K2 in a live-fire environment, suggesting that the modification is being evaluated under realistic conditions rather than as a static concept. At a time when inexpensive first-person-view (FPV) drones and loitering munitions are inflicting heavy losses on armored vehicles in multiple theaters, any visual sign that Seoul is adapting its premier main battle tank is of particular interest. The imagery provides a rare window into how the ROK Army may be translating lessons from current conflicts into rapid, field-level counter-drone measures, even in the absence of an official announcement.
Open-source images circulating in late December suggest that South Korea is evaluating improvised anti-drone cage armor on its K2 Black Panther main battle tanks during live-fire training, reflecting growing concern over the battlefield impact of FPV drones and loitering munitions (Picture Source: South Korean Social Media / Facebook channel Jonghoon Park)
The photographs show K2 Black Panther main battle tanks, a 56-ton, three-man, fourth-generation platform armed with a 120 mm L55 smoothbore gun and an advanced fire-control system, operating on a paved training area in full camouflage and tactical configuration. Mounted above the turret roof is a rectangular lattice structure made of welded metal frames and mesh panels, commonly referred to as a “cope cage.” This add-on structure covers the upper turret area, including the commander’s and gunner’s roof positions, and is installed with a visible stand-off gap above the turret surface. Such spacing is generally intended to reduce the effectiveness of top-attack munitions or drone-delivered explosive charges, although its actual protective value cannot be assessed from imagery alone. The cage design leaves clear openings to preserve the elevation and depression arc of the CN08 120 mm main gun and to maintain lines of sight and access for roof-mounted weapons and sensors. While the structure alters the turret’s upper profile, it appears to be a bolt-on solution that does not interfere with the hull, side armor arrays, or ground clearance, suggesting an effort to enhance overhead protection without modifying the underlying vehicle architecture or degrading baseline mobility.
Other images from the same sequence show a full line of K2s on the firing line, with one tank captured at the exact moment of firing, producing a large muzzle flash from the 120 mm smoothbore gun while the anti-drone cage remains in place. The live-fire setting, together with the presence of multiple similarly K2 MBTs, points to a unit-level evaluation rather than a one-off prototype. The cages are robust enough to remain mounted under firing recoil and blast overpressure, yet do not appear to interfere with the traverse of the turret or the operation of the autoloader, which is critical on the K2’s bustle-mounted ammunition system. This suggests that designers and unit maintenance teams have sought a balance: preserving full combat functionality while exploring how much top-attack shielding can be added without compromising crew access, maintenance or the integration of existing sensors and communications antennas on the turret roof.
From a tactical standpoint, the ROK Army’s experiment echoes a broader global trend. Since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, multiple armies have adopted improvised metal lattices, commonly called “cope cages,” “barbecues” or “mangals”, to provide an additional layer of spaced armor against drones and top-attack munitions. These structures are designed to trigger premature detonation, deflect impact angles or physically obstruct FPV drones attempting to dive onto the turret roof, which has become a preferred aim point for operators. In the Korean case, placing the cage over the turret roof and around the crew hatches could reduce the effectiveness of small explosive charges dropped from quadcopters or the shaped charges carried by FPV drones, at least against single-hit attacks. The presence of the cage during live firing indicates that crews are being trained to operate with the additional mass and altered visibility, trading a small increase in weight and potential ergonomic constraints for an extra margin of survivability against emerging aerial threats.
These Korean images sit alongside separate developments in other countries that are moving from improvised cages to integrated, high-end active protection systems. As reported by Army Recognition, Russia has recently obtained a patent for a new methodology that adapts tank active protection systems to engage both traditional missiles and slow, small drones. The concept uses a Doppler radar and refined algorithms to switch between long-range missile tracking and short-range drone detection, exploiting the micro-Doppler signature of spinning propellers to identify quadcopters and guide hard-kill intercept munitions. While Russia seeks to embed this capability into systems such as the Arena-M family, South Korea’s current step, as suggested by the unconfirmed imagery, appears to be a pragmatic, low-cost interim solution that can be fielded quickly while more sophisticated hard-kill or electronic counter-drone suites for the K2 are still in development. Given that K2 product-improvement roadmaps already envisage hard-kill active protection and potentially anti-UAV electronics for future variants, the emergence of cope cages may be read as an operational bridge between today’s battlefield realities and tomorrow’s integrated protection architecture on the Korean Peninsula. In a region where North Korea is investing in massed artillery, missiles and increasingly diverse unmanned systems, even a modest enhancement to tank survivability can influence deterrence calculations and the robustness of ROK armored brigades in the early stages of a high-intensity conflict.
The social-media imagery of K2 Black Panthers fitted with anti-drone cages and the parallel drive in other countries to adapt active protection systems to FPV threats show that the era of uncontested heavy armor is over. South Korea’s apparent field testing of improvised “cope cages” demonstrates how even the most modern main battle tanks are being reshaped by the proliferation of inexpensive drones, compelling armies to mix rapid, low-tech fixes with more complex sensor-driven defences. Whether or not the ROK Army ultimately standardizes this cage design, the sight of front-line K2s firing their main guns beneath a lattice of steel signals that counter-drone survivability is becoming a central design parameter for armored forces, and that future upgrades to the Black Panther will likely be judged as much by their performance against small unmanned threats as by their traditional armor and firepower.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.