General Dynamics focuses on APS development

General Dynamics Land Systems has announced that it will lead an effort to develop a combat vehicle with a fully integrated Active Protection System (APS) following the completion of a successful Critical Design Review of its APS project.

The company said that this latest initiative aims to develop the first North American combat vehicle with a fully-integrated APS.

General Dynamics plans to validate a fully integrated APS on a Light Armoured Vehicle III (LAVIII) demonstrator later in 2013. The company will lead a team to demonstrate APS technology readiness and integration efficiencies, and reduce the time it takes to bring this lifesaving survivability technology to customers.

While there is no open competition for the development of APS technology within the US armed forces at present, there is an ongoing requirement for vehicle survivability enhancement technology. While the majority of development has focused on platform hardening, the US government has conducted a number of tests with APS solutions recently, suggesting that this requirement is back on the agenda.

APS enhance crew protection, survivability and situational awareness against advanced man-portable weapons by intercepting and defeating threats before they reach the vehicle. It is the only technology capable of defeating certain threats without significantly sacrificing vehicle mobility and transportability.

Sonya Sepahban, Land Systems senior vice president, engineering, development and technology, said: ‘General Dynamics Land Systems has more than 20 years of experience with APS technology integration and development and we are actively engaged in industry studies, research and development. We will continue to leverage our world-class systems engineering and unique survivability expertise, coupled with broad knowledge of APS technologies, to implement this capability on a variety of platforms for our customers.’

General Dynamics is funding the effort and is providing programe leadership and execution, along with system design authority, supplier management, integrated design, hardware build and integration and test management support.