Russia’s Arena-M Anti-Drone APS Fails in First Combat Use

The first publicly documented combat deployment of Russian T-72B3A tanks equipped with the Arena-M active protection system (APS), upgraded to defend against FPV drones, ended in failure.

Footage released by the Omega Special Purpose Center of the National Guard of Ukraine shows an FPV drone striking the rear of a T-72B3A tank without triggering the Arena-M APS.

The tank was part of a convoy of ten Russian tanks that came under attack near the village of Maiak in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

It remains unclear how many tanks in the convoy were equipped with the Arena-M system. As early as last November, reports indicated that Russia had been unable to adapt the Arena-M active protection system (APS) to intercept FPV drones due to the limitations of its radar technology.

Specifically, the radar has difficulty detecting and classifying small, low-observable targets, including mini- and micro-UAVs constructed from radar-transparent (RF-transparent) materials such as plastic.

In addition, at short engagement ranges the radar is unable to reliably discriminate small airborne targets from ground clutter, which remains one of the system’s key technical limitations.

Furthermore, the system’s target detection, tracking, and prioritization algorithms also struggle to process targets exhibiting low-speed, highly unpredictable flight profiles, further reducing their effectiveness against FPV drones.

Meanwhile, Andrii Tarasenko, a researcher specializing in the history of armored vehicle development, questions the claim that the issue is the low observability of FPV drones, noting that all such drones carry metal warheads, which should provide a detectable radar signature.

In his view, this may point to far more serious shortcomings in the Arena-M’s radar system than Russian sources have acknowledged.

Arena-M APS

The Arena-M active protection system (APS) and its predecessor variants have been under development in multiple configurations since the late Soviet era.

Despite numerous public demonstrations and repeated claims of large-scale deployment, the system has never been integrated into frontline combat units on a serial (mass-production) basis.

Russian engineers have been working on integrating the Arena-M active protection system (APS) into T-72B3 and T-90M tanks since at least 2019.

In 2024, isolated T-72B3 and T-90M tanks equipped with the Arena-M APS were spotted.

Despite claims that T-72 tanks fitted with the Arena-M system had been deployed to the front line, they never appeared in combat. Instead, the vehicles were used in the production of a Russian propaganda film.

Live-fire trials of the Arena-M system on T-72B3 tanks had already been conducted in 2021, as confirmed by footage from a test range broadcast on Russian state television.