Learning from their Mistakes: Russia's Arena Active Protection System

摘要

As a result of the Russian Army's mauling at the hands of the Chechen rebels--particularly the disastrous assault on Grozny on 31 December 1994, the Kremlin made a shocking admission of shortcomings at a televised scientific technical conference at Kubinka on 20 February 1995. Defense Minister Pavel Grachev admitted that unnecessary casualties were sustained due to the T-80Y's vulnerabilities: short range, flammable fuel and ammunition stowage, thin upper surface armor. Bitten by their own RPGs, the Russians have developed a defensive countermeasure that solves some of the technological problems addressed at Kubinka. The Arena Active Protection System, developed at the Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau, is designed to provide protection from antitank grenades and ATGMs, including those with top-attack warheads. Arena is foreseen as useful, both on battlefields where the latest generation of 3-8 km ATGMs prevail and during peacekeeping operations and LICs, where the greatest threats are from light antitank weapons. Arena includes three major subassemblies. Inside the turret, and taking up about 30m cubed, is the target detection and tracking equipment (computer, TC's control panel, command signals convertor unit).