Northrop Grumman has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of complete advanced vehicle active protection system (APS) technologies against anti-tank guided munitions.
The demonstration was conducted during the Soft-kill Rodeo event, which was sponsored by the US Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center.
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Northrop Grumman advanced missions vice-president Mike Meaney said: “This solution is an example of leveraging significant investment in aircraft protection to rapidly provide similar capabilities to ground vehicles.
“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.”
Soft-kill Rodeo was held in Huntsville for a month from 5-31 October 2018. The event focused on the development and showcase of soft-kill capability against a variety of real-world threats.
Soft-kill capabilities use electronic countermeasures to alter the electromagnetic signature of a target thereby distorting the tracking ability of an incoming threat. Whereas hard-kill measures physically counter an incoming missile by destroying its warhead or altering it in a way that severely impedes its capability.
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By GlobalDataDuring the demonstration, the company used its passive infrared cueing sensors system to produce an inbound anti-tank guided munitions threat warning for the Multifunction Electro-Optical System (MEOS).
Northrop Grumman’s soft kill countermeasure system, the MEOS was able to successfully detect, counter and defeat the anti-tank guided munitions in real-time, as well as all other threat types fired at its APS system.
The MEOS system has again proved its performance in defeating threats for the fourth consecutive time in field tests.
The APS technologies are designed to prevent line-of-sight guided anti-tank missiles or projectiles from targeting and destroying stationary or mobile land-based military assets, such as an armoured personnel carrier. The systems employ both soft-kill and hard-kill capabilities.
In December 2018, the US Army gave the green light to General Dynamics and Elbit Systems to equip Bradley Tanks with the Iron Fist APS system.
–Additional reporting by Talal Husseini.
