First came Russia’s “turtle tank,” a metal shed rumbling across the battlefield. Then Ukraine laughed at the so-called “hairy tank”, covered with long, wavy metal wires.
Now the “dandelion tank” has arrived.
Moscow’s latest crude design, which features flexible metal rods arranged in branching layers, attempts to protect the tank’s body from the ever-present threat of small kamikaze drones.
It may sound ridiculous, but analysts say the Oduvanchik (Dandelion) anti-drone armor could provide the best protection currently available for expensive vehicles.
It’s the latest in a series of strange-looking Russian inventions to emerge over the past week, each inspiring some level of online derision. These include camouflage netting disguised as rubble and a patent for giant rotating propellers to protect Soviet-era vans.
But in such a protracted and largely static war that requires endless innovation at cheaper and cheaper costs, any advantage can save lives on the front.
The unorthodox dandelion-inspired modification was first photographed last week, covering a Russian T-90M tank inside a warehouse. It is not clear when it will be deployed in combat, but the Russian Ministry of Defense recently patented the design.
Reinforced metal rods are welded together to form a tree-like structure that branches into multiple levels, forming a three-dimensional barrier, like the florets of a dandelion. In any gaps, a high-strength mesh is stretched between them.
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If an FPV drone equipped with explosives flies towards the tank, the rods should detonate it at a distance, shielding the body from most of the blast. For every extra inch the drone is kept at bay, the tank has a better chance of survival.
In addition to the significant basic armor of a T-90, Russia often adds explosive reactive armor and metal cages. Pair this with the Dandelion defense and “you have the best passive anti-drone protection available today,” wrote military correspondent David Ax on his blog, Trench Art.
It is an improvement on the “hedgehog” armor, made of thick, broom-like bristles that protrude from the side of a vehicle, used against Russian forces last year and later by the Ukrainians.
Credit: @GrandpaRoy2/ X
“Up front, anything you can experiment with, all the different types of spikes, chains, cages or a mix of all of them, that can save soldiers’ lives, is worth doing,” said David Kirichenko, a Ukraine-Russia weapons expert.
“Ukrainian soldiers once mocked the Russians for putting cages on their vehicles; now they do too,” he told The Telegraph.
Ukrainian forces were pictured earlier this week showing off a new design on a large infantry fighting vehicle that featured dandelion-like anti-drone armor, hair-like bristles and sheet metal hanging from chains.
Ukraine also uses a version of the “hedgehog” tank.
“It’s part of [the] The endless development of experimental and strange inventions on both sides,” Kirichenko said. “There is a constant race to identify weaknesses, produce measures and countermeasures, and adapt to the changing conditions of the battlefield.”
However, as with many anti-drone systems, there are drawbacks. All the extra gears add weight to the vehicle, slowing it down and leaving it more exposed to the drones that haunt the front end.
Plus, dandelion armor is far from impregnable. Ukraine is proving increasingly effective at flying drones under tanks and vehicles to hit them from below where the armor is weakest, or to use FPVs to drop mines in their path.
Valerii Riabykh, a Ukrainian weapons analyst and editor at Defense Express, also pointed out that such protection was “ineffective against traditional weapons such as an artillery shell, especially a high-precision one.”
But when it comes to drones, he said, “It can be effective for a while until the adversary gets the key to that protection or cracks it.”
Photos of a new type of Russian camouflage netting have also recently been shared.
It can hide gun, artillery or infantry positions under a carpet of broken fake bricks that look like rubble and trash, hiding the equipment of Ukrainian drone operators.
The nets, made of fake rubble, are capable of hiding vehicles from an overhead drone
Mr Riabykh said that, like the dandelion tank, it would probably only be useful for a limited time.
With the rise of AI and image processing tools installed in drones, its specific features could automatically highlight the networks of drone operators, he said, becoming a “unmasking feature that will lead to even faster destruction of those who use them.”
A Russian vehicle camouflaged by a fake debris net
Another rudimentary tactic that emerged last week is the use of large propellers mounted on the roof, front, back and sides of civilian vehicles used in front.
Lacking modern armored vehicles, Russia has been using vans, trucks and jeeps for front-line duties for two years. Such unprotected vehicles are easy targets for Ukraine.
A Russian civilian van with rotating propellers used as an anti-drone measure
According to a Russian patent, when the drone tries to attack a protected vehicle, “there is a high probability that it will enter the rotation area of one of the blades.”
Analysts The Telegraph spoke to have largely dismissed such a design, due to how much of the van is exposed and the fact that the propellers likely cost more than the vehicle they are meant to protect.
However, any changes, however trivial, could allow either side to buy time, Mr. Riabykh said, “and time is everything on the modern battlefield.”
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