Northrop Grumman [NOC] is looking to offer its soft-kill active protection system for Army vehicles with plans to participate in future demonstrations following a successful live-fire test in October, the company said Tuesday.
Mike Meaney, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for advanced missions, told
Defense Daily the company is offering its APS capability as a potential solution for the Army’s Modular Active Protection System (MAPS) program to find a long-term anti-tank missile capability.
The Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) in October held a soft-kill MAPS demonstration “rodeo” in Huntsville, Alabama, where Northrop Grumman tested its APS against anti-tank guided munitions threats.
The October “rodeo” moved the MAPS program a step closer to fielding after officials were able to test the use of a modular controller to manage a range of sensors and countermeasures on APS systems integrated on a surrogate test vehicle (Defense Daily, Oct. 29).
Meaney said the APS offering makes use of the company’s investments in aircraft protection technology.
“This solution is an example of leveraging significant investment in aircraft protection to rapidly provide similar capabilities to ground vehicles in the area of threat warning and [electro-optical/infrared] countermeasure technology,” Meaney told Defense Daily.
Northrop Grumman’s offering used Passive Infrared Cueing Sensors to generate threat warnings for incoming munitions threats, which then triggered the APS’ soft-kill countermeasure system (SKCM), officials said in a statement.
Officials said Northrop Grumman’s SKCM, called the Multifunction Electro-Optical System, was able to counter anti-tank munitions in real-time.
Meaney added the APS offering could be configured for smaller Army vehicles as well, including Bradleys and Strykers, and said Northrop Grumman plans to participate in future demonstrations
“We look forward to working with the Army to deploy an affordable end-to-end Vehicle APS system that can defeat a variety of anti-tank guided munitions,” Meaney said in a statement.
Last week, the Army said it will hold a hard-kill APS demonstration “rodeo” for Strykers in February between a light version of Leonardo DRS and Rafael’s TROPHY and Rheinmetall’s Active Defense System (Defense Daily, Jan. 10).
The Army has already placed a second TROPHY hard-kill APS order for Abrams tanks (Defense Daily, Jan. 8), and officials have indicated that it will purchase Israeli manufacturer IMI System’s Iron First for a hard-kill APS on its Bradleys (Defense Daily, Dec. 14).