Spain’s ARACNE Drone-Defense System Scores First Direct Hit
Spain’s ARACNE counter-drone system (C-UAS) has demonstrated it can shoot down drones by direct kinetic impact during hard-kill evaluation trials, Spanish defense outlet infodefensa reported on 18 October. The “first shots” were fired as the Spanish Army prepares for the Atlas 26 exercise in Huelva.
ARACNE entered service in early October with the Army’s Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment No. 71 (RAAA Nº 71), the reference unit for counter-drone operations. The system pairs a command-and-control package developed by Indra with an electro-optical sensor and weapon station built by EM&E. The program carries a budget of €30 million.
Procurement covers 14 systems in two configurations. The fixed version uses a shelter as its command-and-control center, while the mobile version mounts the equipment on two Vamtac ST5 off-road vehicles. Under the planned distribution, the Army will receive 10 systems (five fixed, five mobile) plus a simulator; the Navy and the Air and Space Force will each get one fixed and one mobile unit. The mobile variant was recently evaluated in Slovakia during NATO trials.
Two-phase evaluation: soft kill validated, hard kill now underway
ARACNE’s operational evaluation proceeds in two phases. The first phase, testing soft-kill capability — disabling a drone without physically destroying it — had already been validated by the Spanish Army. The current hard-kill phase has now produced physical-destruction results through direct hits.
The system’s sensor suite has three components. The Nemus S-band radar covers 360 degrees in azimuth and 90 degrees in elevation, detecting 1-square-meter drones at 12-15 kilometers and 0.01-square-meter mini-drones at 4 kilometers. The 20-kilogram SmartEar radio-frequency sensor scans 400 MHz to 6 GHz across roughly 6 kilometers. EM&E’s Oteos electro-optical sensor combines an HD CMOS camera with third-generation infrared optics and 28x/20x zoom, detecting NATO-standard targets beyond 14 kilometers in daylight and up to 23.1 kilometers in infrared.
On the soft-kill side, the Brontes/EVO inhibitor reaches up to 15 kilometers against satellite navigation (GNSS) signals and 5 kilometers against pilot command links (C2S), making it best suited against commercial or remotely piloted drones. On the hard-kill side, the Guardian 2.0 remote weapon station carries a 40mm MK-19 grenade launcher, effective between 200 and 700 meters with full 360-degree traverse. According to EM&E sources, the station can also mount weapons ranging from 5.56mm and 7.62mm machine guns up to 12.7mm guns, 40mm automatic grenade launchers and 30x113mm cannons. The hard-kill option is specifically intended for drone swarms and fiber-optically guided drones, which are immune to radio-frequency jamming.
Focused on the LSS threat
The program prioritizes Low, Slow, Small (LSS) drones — a class that is inherently difficult to detect. With unmanned aircraft now used for both surveillance and attack missions, this threat class has become a priority for protecting troops and critical infrastructure. Infodefensa’s report notes that lessons from the war in Ukraine helped drive the addition of kinetic, hard-kill options to the program. ARACNE is described as a domestically developed solution and is characterized as the Spanish Ministry of Defence’s first major tender dedicated exclusively to counter-drone systems.
Testing will continue during the Atlas 26 exercise in Huelva, where Army, Navy, and Air and Space Force ARACNE systems will operate together, with the goal of developing joint procedures and interoperability across the three services. Deployment will proceed according to the planned distribution of the 14 systems.
Part of a growing NATO-wide market
ARACNE is entering service at a time when counter-drone systems have rapidly become a priority across NATO member states. The use of small, cheap and numerous drones for both reconnaissance and attack has pushed many European countries to combine software-based jamming with physical kill options in a single system. ARACNE achieving direct hits in its hard-kill trials is a concrete sign of that effort to merge both capabilities on one platform.
