What Is Russia’s Anti-Drone Dome? Pantsir Layers Explained

Russia to Unveil Anti-Drone Dome Built Around Pantsir-SMD-E for African Buyers at Moscow Summit

Russia’s Anti-Drone Dome pairs Pantsir-SMD-E, Pantsir-S1M, Verba and Citadel guns with jammers. Rosoboronexport will pitch it to Africa on October 28-29.

Russian Pantsir-S1 Air Defence Missile-Gun System. A Pantsir-S1 on a KamAZ-6560 chassis at the Oboronexpo exhibition in Zhukovsky, Russia, on August 15, 2014, an earlier relative of the Pantsir-SMD-E and Pantsir-S1M named in the Anti-Drone Dome; file photo.Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped; crops shared under the same licence)

Lucas VaneDirector and Chief EditorOctober 26, 20263 min read

Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has announced that it will unveil a multilayered “Anti-Drone Dome” at the third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow on October 28 and 29, with the package built around the Pantsir-SMD-E and Pantsir-S1M air defence systems. The announcement was carried on October 23 by state media outlet TASS and by the Interfax news agency. The company stated that the system was developed with Russian counter-drone manufacturers and specialised law enforcement agencies, drawing on recent military and counterterrorism operations. No price, delivery schedule, launch customer or performance data was disclosed, and the system has not yet been demonstrated in public. The offer reflects a significant shift in how Moscow markets air defence abroad, with the protection of oil, power and transport infrastructure from cheap drones now presented as the central requirement.

Pantsir-S1 vehicle with radar and missile tubes behind a fence, Russian and Air Force flags flying behind it — Pantsir-S1 Combat Vehicle at Air Force Centenary Display. A Pantsir-S1 (72V6-E4) in Moscow Oblast on August 10, 2012, during the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Russian Air Force, an earlier version than the Pantsir-SMD-E and Pantsir-S1M named in the Anti-Drone Dome; file photo.Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped; crops shared under the same licence)

Rosoboronexport stated that the dome combines airspace surveillance, hard-kill weapons, electronic suppression of drone control and navigation channels, an automated command network and physical barriers, with each package configured for a specific customer and facility. The weapons layer lists the Pantsir-SMD-E and Pantsir-S1M, the 9K333 Verba man-portable system, the TKB-1167 system and Rostec’s Citadel anti-aircraft gun firing programmable airburst rounds. Detection and jamming fall to the Silok, Repellent-Patrol, Sky-Hunter 4PC and Radescan systems. The Pantsir-SMD-E, first shown by its designer KBP at the Army-2024 forum, can carry up to 12 57E6-E missiles with a range of 20 kilometres or up to 48 TKB-1055 miniature interceptors effective out to 7,000 metres. The smaller interceptor is designed for drones, sparing full-size missiles that would otherwise be spent on Shahed-136 class drones costing a fraction as much.

Display model of a 9K333 Verba shoulder-fired missile launcher lying on an exhibition stand — 9K333 Verba Man-Portable Air Defence System. A display model of the Verba, one of the weapons listed in the Anti-Drone Dome, at the ARMY-2016 forum in Moscow Oblast on September 8, 2016; file photo.Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped; crops shared under the same licence)

Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheyev claimed that all the tools and solutions in the package had proven their effectiveness in real conditions, although the company has published no test results to support the statement. On May 25 he stated that African states accounted for 30 percent of Rosoboronexport’s order book, with the company holding military-technical cooperation agreements with 46 countries on the continent. Independent figures show a considerably more modest position, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimating in March that Russia supplied 15 percent of Africa’s major arms imports in 2021-2025, behind the United States at 19 percent and China at 17 percent, while the continent’s total imports fell by 41 percent.

Vladimir Putin waving among African heads of delegation posing for a group photo — Heads of Delegations at the First Russia-Africa Summit. Vladimir Putin poses with African heads of delegation in Sochi, Russia, on October 24, 2019; file photo.Photo: Presidential Press and Information Office (Kremlin.ru) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

The concept is offered abroad while Russia’s own air defences have repeatedly failed to stop Ukrainian long-range drones, which have struck oil refineries, warehouses and data centres hundreds of kilometres from the front. Ukraine also hit the Proton plant in Oryol on October 23, which its General Staff stated supplies electrical components for the Pantsir-S1. President Vladimir Putin replaced the commander of the Aerospace Forces in May amid a surge in such attacks. The Kyiv Post noted that the Arena-M protection system fitted to Russian tanks this summer has been questioned at the front, and that Rosoboronexport had released no performance data for the new dome ahead of its presentation.