Commander Forces Command, Major General Gus McLachlan has confirmed that Army is seeking to equip its fleets of Thales Bushmaster and Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicles with an Active Protection System (APS).
MAJGEN McLachlan said that the increased lethality of hand-held anti-armour weapons is driving manufacturers to design up-armoured, and therefore heavier, vehicles and Army is looking at disruptive technologies such as an APS to limit the weight growth.
An APS is under consideration for the Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles to be acquired under Land 400 Phase 2 and will also be included in a future upgrade of Army’ M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks (MBT). ADM understands that fitting the PMV fleet with an APS will be considered once these two projects have been completed.
The Bushmaster fleet in particular will be due for an upgrade of its protection systems in the near future.
“We are looking at technologies to stop the weight increase cycle and we don’t want to lose the excellent mobility we have with the Bushmaster and Hawkei,” MAJGEN McLachlan said.
The Israel Defence Force has already deployed APS-protected armoured vehicles, including its Merkava 4M MBT and they are understood to have been used in combat. However MAJGEN McLachlan says Army is watching how competing hard-kill active protection systems mature before a decision is forthcoming.
“We probably aren’t big enough to lead the world on this,” he said. “We will need to let the technology mature.”
One of the maturing technologies under scrutiny is the ability to digitally link the effects of an APS system, which could conceivably allow one APS-equipped vehicle to provide protection for a number of others, for example in a convoy, meaning that not every vehicle may have to be equipped with system.