Tarantula is an Active Protection System (APS) under development at Ukrainian manufacturer Rovertech. Designed to be mounted on Zmyi-family unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), it is meant to increase their survivability in combat zones by detecting incoming FPV drones — currently the most critical threat to unmanned vehicles on the modern battlefield.
The system architecture relies on multi-modal sensor fusion: acoustic microphones pick up the characteristic sound of drone rotors, vision cameras run real-time image classification, and an on-device AI pipeline fuses the data streams and alerts the operator to the direction and type of the threat. Rovertech positions Tarantula as a key element to raise the average number of UGV missions — Zmyi platforms currently average 57 missions before loss, while other Ukrainian UGVs end after 7.
Development context: the sharp rise in the FPV-drone threat during the war in Ukraine has meant that traditional armor and APS systems designed for kinetic projectiles (Trophy, Iron Fist, Arena-M) lose effectiveness against masses of cheap, fast, kamikaze drones. A new APS generation must detect small, slow, low-flying objects — and Tarantula belongs to this class.
Status: the system is in development (announced), not yet fielded and not yet shown in Rovertech's official product portfolio. The public information comes from press reports about the company's strategy from July 2026. Western militaries — including the United States — are watching Ukrainian experience with counter-drone APS as a technological head start in this class of systems.
Active Protection System (APS) · serves as: Safety, Sensing, Obstacle Detection.
Which group Tarantula APS belongs to and how it is built
This subcategory covers Active Protection Systems (APS) — integrated hardware-software packages mounted on armored vehicles, unmanned robots and mobile platforms. Their purpose is to detect incoming threats (guided anti-tank missiles, RPGs, FPV drones, grenades) via radar, acoustic sensors, thermal or optical cameras, and then to neutralise them before impact — by launching interceptors, generating decoys or actively jamming drone communications. In the context of the 2022-2026 war in Ukraine, FPV drones have become the key challenge, driving new APS systems based on sensor fusion and AI.
Component type covering integrated APS as a complete package: sensors (radar, acoustic, optical), compute unit with AI algorithms, effector module (interceptors, jamming, decoy generators). The system is sold as a ready-to-mount unit for armored vehicles or UGVs. For Ukrainian UGVs, APS systems focus on threats from FPV drones.
Construction class for APS built on multi-modal sensor fusion (acoustic + vision + potentially radar) with an AI pipeline for threat classification and tracking. Unlike classical armored-vehicle APS (Trophy, Iron Fist) that mainly protect against kinetic projectiles, this APS type specialises in detecting small, slow, low-flying FPV drones — a problem specific to the modern battlefield of 2022 onwards. Representatives: Tarantula (Rovertech, in development).
