by DAVID AXE
In 2025, Russia mostly parked its thousands of tanks. Now it may have a reason to roll them out again. The new Arena-M active protection system could offer Russian tanks the protection they need to get across the wide drone kill zone straddling the disputed gray zone in Ukraine.
A recent exercise underscored a lesson the Russians learned from an earlier combat experiment: the radar-cued Arena-M, which fires a dozen tiny projectiles at a time at incoming drones and missiles, actually works.
With certain tweaks—namely, a much larger magazine—and wider adoption, the Arena-M could be the technological breakthrough Russian tank commanders have been waiting for.
During Russia’s recent Center-26 military exercise, a T-90M tank demonstrated its Arena-M system against first-person-view drones and larger loitering munitions. The APS was able to intercept both. (See video below.)
It was a repeat performance for the Arena-M, which equips some T-90Ms and certain new and upgraded T-72 models.
