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Russia touts new Arena-M APS for main battle tanks
The Chief Designer of the Machine Building Bureau, Valery Kashin, touted the newly developed Arena-M active protection system’s (APS) effectiveness against anti-tank guided missiles.
Speaking to the Russian News Agency TASS, Kashin claimed that the Arena-M can “undoubtedly … protect a tank from a TOW [Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided]” anti-tank guided missile.
As per Kashin, development of the Arena-M was propelled by recent combat experiences (from Russia and others) in the Middle East. Citing the essential role of MBTs in counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, Kashin stated that defensibility against anti-tank munitions cannot be sustained by reactive armour alone.
The Arena-M is a hard-kill APS, meaning, it utilizes a radar to detect incoming projectile threats and directs a rocket launcher onboard the tank to intercept incoming munitions. It will be available for T-72 and T-90 MBTs to serve as a first layer of defence against anti-tank munitions, such as the TOW.
6 Comments
by Qasim57
Tanks should just get CIWS (Close-In Weapons Systems). Maybe even use their machine-gun turret for this. We might see this at some point!
by Türker Demircan
Very critic technology as lost many MBTs in Syria, mostly hited by TOW
by mazhar
May be irrelevent in this thread, we got MIRV in the shape of Ababeel.
by mazhar
Bilal, please write something about MIRV, we just achieved this milestone by Ababeel.
by OSD
As you might notice from the description, the Arena-M is a type of CIWS.
by Qasim57
Perhaps to an extent. This has a radar that detects incoming projectiles and fires a rocket at it.
I was thinking more along the lines of naval CIWS, where they have incredibly high rate-of-fire guns that engage and destroy incoming missiles.
The benefit of that sort of CIWS is that even if one intercepting missile files, thousands of rounds are fired and another one could prevent damage to the vessel.