Leonardo da Vinci’s armored military vehicle sketch is commonly called an armored tank.
The design shows a large, covered vehicle with sloping, conical armor and numerous small cannons arranged around its perimeter. Leonardo imagined the vehicle moving across a battlefield while protecting the crew inside. It would have required several people to turn internal cranks connected to the wheels, making it a coordinated mechanical platform rather than a modern engine-powered tank.
The vehicle is often described as an early tank because its armor, enclosed crew compartment, and gun armament anticipate features associated with later armored fighting vehicles. However, it was a conceptual Renaissance design, not a documented working prototype. The familiar drawing also contains a gear arrangement that appears mechanically contradictory, possibly because of a drafting error or intentional concealment.
Leonardo’s design belongs to his broader work on military engineering, which included bridges, artillery ideas, fortifications, and other battlefield machines.