The below photo, of a tank fitted with bristling metal wires, is one of the clearest images yet seen of a new kind of anti-drone armorfirst spottedon invading tanks in Ukraine in the autumn of 2025.

The armor is reportedly made from steel cables cut into uniform lengths, then unraveled into individual wire strands. The spiky wires are then affixed to a metal cage fitted to the tank or vehicle.

Both sides in the Ukraine conflict are now using the new anti-drone coverings, dubbed "hedgehog armor."

A Russian tank fitted with hedgehog armor in the Donetsk region of Ukraine

Iryna Rybakova,a press officer with Ukraines 93rd Mechanized Brigade, told RFE/RL the fluffy armor is designed to get drones tangled and not detonate, or detonate at a distance from the vehicle hull.

Most kamikaze first-person view (FPV )drones are fitted with a fuze that protrudes from its warhead and detonates on impact. The spiky new armor could potentially entangle such a drone before its fuze reaches a solid surface.

Rybakova says one Russian hedgehog tank operating near Toretsk in the Donetsk region absorbed dozens of hits from Ukrainian FPV drones before it was finally destroyed. She adds that against larger and faster kamikaze drones, such as theRussian Lancet,hedgehog armor offers little protection.

Russian soldiers with a tank fitted with hedgehog armor in Ukraine's Donetsk region in November

Carlo Masala,a professor and military expert at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, told RFE/RL the latest anti-drone measure seems to be a new tactic to bring maneuver back into warfare.

With the effectiveness of cheap FPV drones capable of destroying tanks worth up to millions of dollars, both sides in the conflict have struggled to carry out the kind of armored assaults that were once a cornerstone of military tactics.

In recent months, Masala says, we have only seen incursions by a few soldiers behind enemy lines. Large troop and vehicle movements have beenlargely limited to foggy dayswhen poor visibility reduces the threat of reconnaissance and FPV drones.

A Russian tank crewman photographed beneath a hedgehog armor cage

The unusual new armor reportedly comes with drastic tradeoffs for tank crews.

A Russian tank driver recentlygave a media interviewin which he described a tank being fitted with hedgehog armor. As a result of the added weight, the tank didnt even make it 10 kilometers before one of the [drivetrain components] failed. The tank driver added that the bulk of the hedgehog armor means the stress on the components [of the tank] is immense.

Masala says such drawbacks seem to be accepted in order to bring more maneuver warfare back.

A Ukrainian crew fits plastic wires to a cage designed to fit over a tank

Press officer Rybakova was witness to an early iteration of hedgehog armor when a Ukrainian team attached plastic cables designed to snag drone propellors through a metal tank cage (seen in photo above) in May.

The cumbersome vehicle was used as a decoy to draw attention away from Ukrainian troops withdrawing from their positions. Enemy FPVs flew into the tank. There were about 5 or 6 hits, which the crew almost did not feel, Rybakova says, but then the enemy dropped an anti-tank mine, which set the vehicles engine ablaze.

Its a pity about the tank, but the people remained alive and the task was accomplished, she says.