The Russian ARENA-M APS can defend attacks from any direction, the national Russian media has reported. The system is equipped with radar technology and manoeuvrable ammunition to destroy the attacking threat. Details of it were disclosed to the Russian MoD TV channel by Vladimir Kharkin, Head of the Development and Design Department at Kolomna KBM.
The so-called protective ammunition ARENA-M is said to be capable of countering threats constituted by approaching projectiles from any direction. Thanks to impulse engines, the reaction time is reduced to a minimum, the designer emphasised. ARENA-M APS operates in an automatic mode with radar detecting missiles launched in the direction of the vehicle. Upon detection of the threat, two shells are launched and explode in the attacking threat’s trajectory. This causes a directed stream of debris to destroy the approaching missile in close distance to the armoured vehicle to prevent any damage for friendly troops.
According to KBM, ARENA-M will equip Russian MBTs such as the T-90 and T-72.
Earlier, Bekhan Ozdoev, Industrial Director of the Rostec Corporation, said that ARENA-M can intercept all modern anti-tank guided missiles. He claimed the ARENA-M was capable of intercepting FGM-148 JAVELIN and SPIKE ATGWs directed at the vaehicel’s lightly protected upper section.
ARENA-M is an ARENA derivative — an older KBM Design Bureau product which was developed in the 1990s and primarily used to equip T-80 MBTs. The system’s export version is designated ARENA-E.
