Laugh, But This Hideous Russian Hedgehog Tank Probably Works

First turtles, then porcupines—now hedgehogs

Via Special Kherson Cat

Up-armored Russian tanks that recently appeared somewhere along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine might be the most up-armored tanks of the 45-month wider war.

They sport the usual explosive reactive armor blocks atop their steel and composite hulls plus, it seems, anti-drone cages. And jutting from the cages: thousands of wire spines that, in concept, should help to detonate first-person-view drones before they strike the tanks’ hulls.

The cherry on top: radio jammers for grounding wireless drones.

They’re hedgehog tanks—and they’re hideous, heavy and surely hard to drive. But that doesn’t mean they don’t work. As long as tiny explosive drones are among Ukraine’s main defenses against Russian mechanized assaults, anything that might interfere with the drones is worth trying. However ugly or awkward it might be.

Recall that many observers laughed at the Russian turtle tanks—with add-on metal shells—that proliferated along the front in 2023. They also laughed at the Russian porcupine tanks with their rebar spines that appeared this summer.

The turtles and porcupines aren’t invulnerable, but they have raised the cost of Ukrainian drone operations.