Russia’s ‘dandelion’ tank armour might just work

 First came Russia’s “turtle tank”, a metal shed rumbling across the battlefield. Then Ukraine laughed at the so-called “hairy tank”, coated in long, wavy metal wires.

Now the “dandelion tank” has arrived.

Moscow’s latest crude design, which features flexible metal rods arranged in branched layers, attempts to shield the body of the tank from the ever-present threat of small kamikaze drones.

It may look ridiculous, but analysts say the Oduvanchik (dandelion) anti-drone armour might offer the best protection currently available for the expensive vehicles.

It is the latest in a series of odd-looking Russian inventions that have appeared over the past week, each inspiring some level of mockery online. They include a camouflage net disguised as rubble and a patent for giant rotating propellers to protect Soviet-era vans.

But in such a protracted and largely static war, which demands endless innovation at cheaper and cheaper costs, any edge may save lives at the front.

The unorthodox dandelion-inspired modification was pictured for the first time last week, covering a Russian T-90M tank inside a warehouse. It is unclear when it will be deployed for combat, but Russia’s defence ministry recently patented the design.

The reinforced metal rods are welded together to form a tree-like structure that branches out into several tiers, forming a three-dimensional barrier, like the florets of a dandelion. In any gaps, a high-strength mesh is stretched between them.

If an explosive-rigged FPV (first-person-view) drone flies towards the tank, the rods should detonate it at a distance, shielding the hull from most of the blast. For every extra inch the drone is kept away, the tank has a better chance of survival.

On top of a T-90’s significant base armour, Russia often adds explosive reactive armour and metal cages. Pair this with the dandelion defence and “you’ve got the best passive anti-drone protection currently available,” David Axe, a military correspondent, wrote on his blog, Trench Art.

It is an upgrade of the “hedgehog” armour, of thick broom-like bristles protruding from a vehicle’s side, used across the front by Russian forces last year, and later by the Ukrainians.

“At the front, anything you can experiment with, all different kinds of spikes, chains, cages, or a mixture of all, that can save the lives of soldiers 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 are doing it 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 armour, hair-like bristles, and metal sheets hanging from chains.

“It is a part of [the] endless development of experimental and wacky inventions by both sides,” said Mr Kirichenko. “There is a constant race to identify weaknesses, produce measures and countermeasures and adapt to changing battlefield conditions.”

Yet, as with many other anti-drone systems, there are drawbacks. All the extra gear adds to the vehicle’s weight, slowing it down and leaving it more exposed to the drones that haunt the front.

Plus, the dandelion armour is far from impregnable. Ukraine is proving increasingly efficient at flying drones beneath tanks and vehicles to strike them from below, where the armour is weakest, or to use FPVs to drop mines in their path.

Valerii Riabykh, a Ukrainian weapons analyst and editor of Defence Express, also pointed out how 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 may be effective for some time until the opposing side picks up the key to this protection, or breaks it.”

Photographs have also recently been shared of a new type of Russian camouflage net.

It can disguise gun, artillery or infantry positions underneath a rug of fake smashed-up bricks that look like rubble and rubbish, hiding equipment from Ukrainian drone operators.

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 within drones, its specific features could automatically highlight the nets to drone operators, he said, becoming an “unmasking feature which will lead to even faster destruction of those who use them”.

Another rudimentary tactic that emerged last week is the use of large propellers mounted on the roof, front, rear and sides of civilian vehicles used at the front.

Short on modern armoured vehicles, Russia has for two years been using vans, trucks and jeeps for front-line tasks. Such unprotected vehicles are easy targets for Ukraine.

According to a Russian patent, when the drone attempts to attack a protected vehicle, “there is a high probability that he will enter the rotation zone of one of the blades”.

Analysts The Telegraph spoke to largely dismissed such a design, owing to how much of the van is exposed and the fact that the propellers probably cost more than the vehicle they are intended to protect.

Yet any modifications, no matter how seemingly trivial, could allow either side to buy time, said Mr Riabykh, “and time on the modern battlefield is everything”.