Covering Tanks with Netted Drones: Unconventional Techniques for Protecting Armored Vehicles
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Western military thought continues to seek ways to protect armored vehicles from UAVs, which have become the main aerial threat to ground forces during the Ukrainian conflict.
Unconventional protection concepts were presented at the IAV 2025 (International Armoured Vehicles 2025) conference in Farnborough, England tanks using dronesAt this point, these are just ideas, not solutions that can be immediately applied on the battlefield.
One proposal shown at IAV 2025 envisions a “flock” of small quadcopters covering a column of tanks by holding a camouflaged net over them. The concept’s developers plan to use a Kevlar net, which would make it lightweight. However, it is unclear how such a covering would work in windy conditions.
Another concept involves creating active cover for moving tanks from the UAVs themselves. They will fly above the MBT, creating a kind of aerial minefield. Loitering munitions attacking the tanks will fall into this “shield” or will be actively destroyed by the UAV defenders. In a similar way, they can cover other troop formations, such as infantry columns.
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