The cage is supposed to detonate the heat round (which both the rpg and javelin have to some extent) prior to impacting the actual armor. There’s usually a shaped charge in the round and a stand off with the primer in it that ignites the round at the convergence point of the shaped charge. If you set that off prior to the round hitting the armor it’ll just splatter against the armor rather than penetrate it. Some weapons have a tandem charge, that has two shaped charges to help it get through ERA or I imagine cope cages.

Man, those guys are good. Looks like they line up a perfect shot to hit where the turret joins the hull.

The whole purpose of the log is to help the vehicle get through mud. Here’s a short video: Russian Logs

It starts out super concentrated and spreads out at a 35-45 degree angle from the end of the gun tube and becomes less concentrated the further out it gets. There’s a chance it wouldn’t hit somebody a hundred meters out but anybody left would get hit with the coaxial mounted machine gun.

Nah, you’re not crazy. This round has 2048 ball bearings in it that are effective out to 300 meters.