Armor

The National Interest story on the Kugelpanzer assumes that this one-man "tank" was supposed to be--well--a tank. (The picture for the story is completely irrelevant.)

"Thus, the Kugelpanzer was likely designed with some other purpose in mind." I can take a guess.

They didn't have the technology to build exoskeletons, so they made up a kind of personal armor instead. I think that instead of Iron Man flying through the air, they wanted supermen rolling around the battlefield. 5mm of armor isn't a lot, but I'm imagining a whole bunch of these coming over the hill at once...

Yes, you're right--a maintenance nightmare and expensive as all get-out.