What It Means When a Tank Starts Going in Circles — and Why It Keeps Happening

You’re scrolling through TikTok or Reddit when it appears: a tank — usually in grainy war footage — spinning in slow, eerie circles, sometimes with no clear damage or crew visible. The post is titled “ghost tank,” and the top comment just asks: What is happening here?

It’s not just you wondering. Across platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter), videos of tanks rotating endlessly have been racking up millions of views. The question at the center of it all — what does a tank going in circles mean — has turned into its own kind of internet mystery.

There is no official military report explaining this exact scenario, and you won’t find “ghost tank” in any battlefield manual. That, however, hasn’t stopped people from piecing together a compelling theory using war footage, commentary from defense enthusiasts, and basic mechanical logic.

The most common explanation, especially among Reddit users and amateur analysts, is that the tank has suffered a mobility kill — a real military term that refers to a vehicle being damaged in such a way that it can no longer maneuver properly. In these cases, if one track is destroyed or jammed while the other is still functional, the tank will begin to spin in place or in a loop. The Wikipedia entry for mobility kill notes that this type of partial disablement is common in modern armored warfare.

In some of the most widely shared clips, the tank continues to rotate even though the crew appears to be absent or unresponsive, which adds to the “ghostly” feel. One example, shared on Reddit, shows a Russian tank slowly driving in circles. Users in the comments speculated that the engine was left running after the crew either abandoned the vehicle or was incapacitated.

The phrase “ghost tank” isn’t official — it’s internet folklore. TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit users coined the term to describe tanks that appear to be operating without a driver. Some clips show the turrets slowly rotating, or the machine drifting in circles across empty fields, sometimes under fire.

Commenters often compare the sight to something from a horror film, with some jokingly calling it a “death spiral” or “tank roulette.”

One Redditor put it bluntly: “It’s usually a mechanical issue. One track goes, the other keeps pulling. It spins. That’s it.” Others speculate that onboard electronics or automatic systems might continue operating even after the crew has bailed.

Although no credible defense publication or military source has broken down this exact phenomenon, the patterns across dozens of viral clips offer a kind of crowdsourced clarity. In short, it’s a mix of mechanics, momentum, and battlefield chaos.

In a widely shared post on X, a video shows a T-80BV tank slowly spinning after allegedly being hit in combat. The account claims the track was damaged, but the engine remained active, causing the vehicle to pivot in place.

Military historian Bret Devereaux also notes in his blog that tank mobility is their greatest vulnerability. While he doesn’t reference the ghost tank phenomenon directly, his analysis helps explain how a disabled track or transmission issue could result in movement without a driver, especially if the tank is left running.

While there’s no official explanation as to why a tank might drive in circles, the internet concluded: It’s not paranormal, it’s mechanical.

The next time you scroll past a video of a tank rotating in an open field with no clear purpose, you’ll know there’s probably no mystery to it — just a damaged track, a running engine, and no one left to hit the brakes.