I seen this pic of a Ukranian Chally II with a cope cage and im wondering if this is a real or a photo shopped photo
or are they actually doing this it got me interested in building my Ukrainain Challenger II with it
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It’s a picture off a film published last month, so yes.
So the cope cage is real?
The Russians did use them last year when they first encountered all the drone activity, but for the most part they’ve given it up as they obstructed mg and radio use and made it hard to escape a burning tank.
As for Ukraine adopting them I don’t know but I’m sure there will be more confirmation from other site members.
But I could see some crews using them if they felt more secure with them; the Russian drones have been effective as well and from the footage I’ve seen getting out of a burning vehicle seems difficult with or without a cope cage in your path. YMMV
The Russians are still using them- in fact the cope cages are now built in the actual factories. The T-90M, T-72B3 and T-80BVM variants are now all being built with them.
The cages have very little effect on anti-tank missiles and absolutely zero effect on APFS-DS and other rounds fired by other tanks.
They do provide some level of defense against drones such as the Russian Lancet and the various Ukrainian drones.
The cage/screen needs to go all around the tank so that the drones can’t fly in under the edge of the “umbrella”.
Edit: See further clarification by MoramarthT in post below
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It seems to me there are actually two different systems in play. “Cope Cages” are relatively small, fit the turret quite closely and are of sturdy construction. The other - let’s call them “Mosquito Nets” are made of lighter materials, cover a greater part of the vehicle and extend further from it’s surfaces. “Cope Cages” appear to have been intended as a form of “Bar/Slat Armour” which have been ineffectual in their intended role but have sufficient utility against lighter drone-dropped munitions to be worth retaining. “Mosquito Nets”, on the other hand, seem to be optimised against smaller, lighter, lower velocity, possibly improvised drones. They seem to have come about because some drones were snagged (even without exploding) in camouflage netting. They often seem to be too lightweight to be effective against serious weaponry but intended to protect valuable items from being taken out by “cheap-and-nasty” munitions.
Regards,
M
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H.P.
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Is that a KRAB by any chance?
It is… 
H.P.
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I almost pulled my in-progress project off the shelf last night…
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Was that an, AS nasty …(AS90)