HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Army should know whether it will install active protection systems (APS) on the M1 Abrams tank before the end of the year or wait until its own modular missile shield is ready for production.
“We have a decision point at the end of our characterization phase,” said Col. Kevin Vanyo, program manager at the Tank Automotive Research, development and Engineering Center’s emerging capabilities office.
That decision is between purchasing non-developmental APS in the short term or “sit on this and wait” until the Army’s own modular active protection system (MAPS) is ready, Vanyo said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.
The Army plans to spend about $75 million to install and characterize active protection systems on its combat vehicles.
About $25 million each will go to installing and characterizing three existing APS systems on the M1 Abrams, Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Stryker wheeled vehicle, Vanyo said. The first Abrams blast hull has an APS installed and calibrated and is now ready for live-fire testing at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
“It is actually in shipping and will be coming down to Redstone this week,” Vanyo told reporters at the conference. “We will start the characterization next month.”
Durability testing of the APS system aboard Abrams will also begin next month at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, he said.
The Army has a three to four-month head start on characterizing APS on Abrams because funding was available in the current fiscal year.
“We had the initial funding for Abrams sooner that we did for Bradley and Stryker,” he said.
Characterization of the system aboard Abrams should be complete in the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Bradley and Stryker should follow by mid-year, Vanyo said.
Vanyo would not say which systems the Army is testing, but information from multiple sources including the Army suggests that the Iron Curtain missile shield designed by Artis under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency development program will be tested for its ability to protect Stryker wheeled vehicles specifically from rocket propelled grenades (RPG). Israeli Military Industries’ Iron Fist non-developmental APS is being tested aboard Bradley and DRS Technologies’ Trophy APS will be installed for test aboard Abrams. DRS is a U.S.-based division of Italy’s Leonardo.
The Army also is interested in the Active Defence System (ADS) system made by German defense firm Rheinmetall but budget considerations excluded that technology from the running. Germany is pursuing ADS for its Leopard battle tanks.
There are several types of APS on the market that take different approaches to defeating incoming guided munitions. Distributed systems, also called “halo-type” APS are best at close-range shots in tight, urban combat. Some can defeat anti-tank guided missiles and some cannot, Vanyo said.
ADS is in that category with Iron Curtain. Another category is “fly-out” APS that launch interceptors at incoming munitions. Trophy and a system designed by Raytheon [RTN] are in that category.