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Ukraine: Those "dragon teeth" are even more useless than I thought [1]

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Date: 2022-10-23

x The construction of a new Wagner cope line is under way Belgorod. pic.twitter.com/4hhxn8PIex — Artoir (@ItsArtoir) October 22, 2022

This is a picture of “Dragon teeth” from a line near Belgorod, not the line in Donbas. However, they look similar enough that I am operating under the assumption they are the same. If so, these things are utterly pointless and have near zero military application. The other day when I wrote this article on dragon teeth I guessed that the Russians might not be doing it correctly, but I had no idea it was this bad.

WWII style dragons teeth were placed on a concrete mat that was a meter or two deep. This concrete mat is somewhat essential to prevent the teeth from sinking as well as easily being disrupted by other measures. The Russians are using simple triangular pyramid concrete blocks left loose in the field. I had thought they would at least be more like an obelisk buried in the ground to provide some level of robustness. What the Russians are doing here has SO many problems. Lets us count the ways.

First, in anything but frozen solid ground when a tank encounters this in the field it will either push it to the side or drive it into the soil.

Second, any vehicle with some sort of plow or bulldozer attachment will easily push these aside. Look at the crane being used to move them, it’s not like its anything more than a simple contractors crane. A jersey barrier weighs a lot more than these do.

Third, a 155mm artillery round hitting close enough will be able to move them. A simple but intense barrage of artillery on the line of teeth before attacking it should clear a hole for vehicles.

Fourth, if you look closely at the picture in the upper right of the tweet, you can see the rebar loops where the crane operator attaches the crane to move them. The morons left those facing up instead of at the very least rolling the tooth so that those are on the bottom. Left on top, a soldier can attach a cable and a vehicle can just pull it away. You’re just clearing an opening so it doesn’t even need to be moved far.

Fifth, some strong guys with a good bar could probably roll one out of the way without even needing a vehicle.

Sixth, this makes great cover for attacking infantry. Yes they need to expect landmines, but they need to worry about that anyway.

These are seriously just decoration. The only good side is that the farmer will be able to easily remove them later.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/23/2130685/-Ukraine-Those-dragon-teeth-are-even-more-useless-than-I-thought

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