These Spiky Russian Vans Look Like a Joke—Until the Drones Hit

What looks like a construction site mishap is actually Russia's 'porcupine van'—a spiked vehicle built to deflect Ukrainian drones on the battlefield

Via Exilenova+

First there was the porcupine infantry fighting vehicle. Then the porcupine tank. After that—the porcupine engineering vehicle. Now the Russians are adding metal anti-drone quills to “bukhanka” vans.

The first video of an ex-civilian bukhanka—a 4.4-m, six-passenger van—with add-on spikes made of steel rebar circulated online on Sunday. In just the past month or so, Russian troops in Ukraine have become increasingly convinced the metal quills can prevent strikes by Ukraine’s tiny first-person-view drones, which are everywhere all the time along the 1,100-km front line of Russia’s 40-month wider war on Ukraine.

They’re not necessarily wrong. The spikes look ridiculous, of course. But then, so did the very first anti-drone screens—so-called “cope cages”—the Russians added to their armored vehicles in the early months of the wider war in 2022. Cope cages are now factory-standard on both sides of the wider war—and many armies around the world are adopting them, too.

Also silly-looking: the layers of metal sheeting the Russians added to the many vehicles once Ukrainian drone operators learned how to steer their drones underneath the cope cages. These “turtle tanks” work well enough. They’re heavy and ungainly, but they can survive multiple drone strikes.

It’s unrealistic for the Russians to convert all of their vehicles in Ukraine into turtles, but it’s feasible they could add rebar quills to many vehicles that don’t warrant—or can’t support—a full metal shell. Don’t be shocked if the porcupine bukhanka that appeared earlier this month produces a lot of clones.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.