How To Make A Drone-Proof Porcupine Tank

Unravel 3 tons of aluminum cable and weld it on

A Russian hedgehog tank. Via Roy

When Russian troops first realized their tanks and other armored vehicles were vulnerable to Ukraine’s explosive first-person-view drones, shortly after Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022, they doubled down on a form of improvised armor that already protected some vehicles from rocket-propelled grenades.

The resulting “cope cages”—metal frames supporting slats or mesh—were awkward, ugly and, to many observers, frankly hilarious.

But they worked. Especially in conjunction with drone-grounding radio jammers. “If a tank is spotted with cages and a jammer, it takes at least double or triple the usual number—six to eight drones—to disable it,” one Ukrainian drone operator told Ukrainian-American war correspondent David Kirichenko. “We used to laugh at their cages, but now we use them, too.”

Three years later, the Russians are on their fourth generation of do-it-yourself anti-drone armor. And now we know exactly how the latest DIY armor is made. In short, take around three tons of heavy-duty aluminum cable, unwind short sections of it and weld it to a tank’s cope cage.