The AURIGA (ArmoURed Infantry Ground Assault) project, an initiative for the development of the next-generation infantry vehicle, has officially started.
The project, run by the consortium of the same name led by Leonardo, includes 48 companies from 18 European countries. The initiative is now in the phase of studying new enabling technologies, through the collection of operational requirements from all the Ministries of Defence involved and the identification of capability needs.
The project, which has a duration of 36 months, is among those co-financed by the European Defence Fund (EDF) in 2024, and has been allocated €25 million (approx. A $41 million).
The AURIGA Consortium aims to design a Next-generation Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle, aligned with the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) standardised across participating European nations in order to ensure interoperability as a design requirement, together with open, scalable, and modular architecture principles.
More specifically, the overall ambitious goal of the Consortium is to develop the preliminary design of the AIFV architecture, the high-level design of a selected subset of technological bricks, and—using “derisking” demonstrators—to analyse their applicability to both existing and next-generation AIFV.
In addition to creating a modular system architecture capable of enabling integration of new technologies into legacy platforms, the project will focus on developing technologies in the areas of vehicle protection, mobility, firepower, cybersecurity, and Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I).
The goal is to strengthen the interoperability of the new vehicle with other actors in the field, within complex operational scenarios and from an increasingly multidomain perspective.