Behold The Dandelion Tank
A Russian T-90 with hundreds of tree-like metal branches may have the best protection yet against Ukrainian drones
As soon as six weeks after a patent circulated for a new kind of Russian anti-drone armor, that armor has been applied to a front-line vehicle: a T-90 tank. The first photo of the tank in its workshop circulated this week.
It remains to be seen whether, when and where the tank will deploy for combat.
The new “dandelion” armor is a riff on the “hedgehog” armor the Russians—and later Ukrainians—applied to some tanks and infantry fighting vehicles starting last year.
Hedgehog armor is made up of thousands of short lengths of unwound aluminum industrial cabling. Welded to a metal cage bolted atop a vehicle, the metal “hairs” can detonate an incoming first-person-view drone before it strikes the vehicle’s hull.
The dandelion armor welds the thin metal hairs to thicker stalks that branch like trees, extending the protection farther from the vehicle.
A T-90 already has significant base armor that’s equivalent to more than 1,000 millimeters of steel. Add explosive reactive armor, a metal cage and dandelion stalks, and you’ve got the best passive anti-drone protection currently available.
Yes, the application adds tons to a vehicle’s weight. “The heavy steel cables are hard on the transmission,” drone expert Roy noted. At the same time, the stalks “provide the best available protection.”
