Ukrainian drone footage shows Russia’s new tank protecting Arena-M anti-drone system in action – or rather, not taking any action. The Arena-M, officially indexed as T09-A6-1, is classified as an active protection system (APS). Russia claims its radar can detect incoming drones and missiles, which are then intercepted by fragmentation warheads from 12 defensive launch tubes mounted around the turret, providing nearly 360-degree coverage.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. But a combat video shared by the Ukrainian National Guard’s “Omega” special forces unit shows its first-person view (FPV) drone ramming into the back of the Russian tank, meeting with no resistance.
Military outlet Militanyi identified the tank as Russia’s T-72B3A, a modernized version of the Russian T-72B3 main battle tank with the Arena-M attached. The outlet said the attack took place near the village of Maiak in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.Russian outlet Izvestia reported earlier in July that the exact model with the new Arena-M was being deployed to combat in Ukraine, with the system having completed qualification testing in 2024 before being integrated into Russia’s T-72 and T-90 main battle tanks.Performance questioned by Russian expertsRussian military analysts have previously cast doubt on the system’s advertised radar performance.In November 2025, Russian military analyst Viktor Murakhovsky argued that the Arena-M faced fundamental limitations in detecting the very drones it is now claimed to defeat.
