The Arena Active Protection System is an active countermeasure system developed at Russia's Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau for the purpose of protecting armored fighting vehicles from destruction by light anti-tank weapons, anti-tank guided missiles, and missiles with top attack warheads. It uses a Doppler radar to detect incoming warheads. Upon detection, a defensive rocket is fired that detonates near the inbound threat, destroying it before it hits the vehicle. Arena is the successor to Drozd, a Soviet active protection system from the late 1970s. The successful use by the Chechnyans of the rocket propelled grenade against the Russian fighting vehicles prompted the Kolomenskoye machine-building design bureau to devise the Arena active protection system in the early and mid-1990s. An export variant, Arena-E, was also developed. The system has been tested on the T-80UM-1, demonstrated at Omsk in 1997, and was considered for use on the South Korean K2 Black Panther main battle tank.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

48 BC:

Julius Caesar and the Populares defeated Pompey and the Optimates at the Battle of Pharsalus, solidifying his control over the Roman Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pharsalus

1173:

The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa

1942:

British Raj authorities arrested Mahatma Gandhi and various leaders of the Congress Party, beginning the suppression of the Quit India Movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quit_India_Movement

1945:

World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb named "Fat Man", devastating Nagasaki, Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man

1969:

Followers of cult leader Charles Manson brutally murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in her Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles home. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Tate

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

ribald (adj): Coarse; lewd; vulgar http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ribald

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered. --Jean Piaget http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget