What armored vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci sketch around 1487 as a covered, wheeled war machine with cannons?

Leonardo da Vinci’s covered, wheeled war machine was called Leonardo’s fighting vehicle.

Leonardo sketched the design around 1487 while working in Milan for Ludovico Sforza. The vehicle had a conical protective cover and multiple light cannons arranged around its perimeter. It was intended to move across a battlefield while shielding soldiers inside from enemy fire.

The design is often called a “tank,” but that modern term can be misleading. Leonardo’s vehicle was never built in its original form, and its drawings show practical problems, including gears that would make the machine move in the wrong direction. Some historians think this may have been an intentional flaw to keep the design from being easily used by others.

The fighting vehicle was one part of Leonardo’s broader military portfolio, which also included bridges, artillery concepts, fortifications, and siege equipment. It was an imaginative engineering proposal rather than a demonstrated battlefield invention.