Russia’s tank shield shot down seven drones—Ukraine destroyed the tank anyway

Russia's efforts to protect its tanks from Ukrainian drones have been met with mixed results. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russia is testing a tank-mounted system called Arena-M, which fires interceptors at incoming drones. While the system shot down some drones in early August, a T-72B3A tank equipped with Arena-M was still destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian combat drone specialist Dmytro Putiata confirmed that Arena-M shot down seven drones before its magazine ran out, but it was ultimately overwhelmed by a swarm of 15 to 20 FPV drones. Despite these setbacks, Russia continues to fit tanks with active protection systems in hopes of restoring mechanized maneuver and breaking out of the positional warfare that has defined the conflict.

However, ISW believes that Arena-M alone is insufficient to shield Russian tanks from Ukraine's arsenal of drones and other weapons. The focus of Russian efforts appears to be on finding ways to keep tanks on the move, even if it means sacrificing some of their protective capabilities.