US Army to test StrikeShield APS

The US Army is to test the StrikeShield Active Protection System under an $11 million contract awarded to Rheinmetall Protection Systems and Unified Business Technologies (UBT).

The army’s recently formed Vehicle Protective Systems programme office will evaluate StrikeShield as part of a larger effort to characterise APS performance against a wide variety of anti-armour threats. The army will carry out extensive live fire testing of the StrikeShield system over several months from October 2020.

The aim of the testing is to gather performance data that can inform future selection of APS technologies best suited for platforms such as the future Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Mobile Protected Firepower or Optionally-Manned Fighting Vehicle.

StrikeShield is a distributed, real time system which was developed to protect the carrying platform against anti-tank rockets and missiles.

Stefan Haase, Rheinmetall’s head of the product unit Active Protection, said: ‘We are excited to enter into a new phase of partnership with the army that will enable the army to carry out extensive tests of the StrikeShield APS system. We are confident the system will perform very well in the testing and that possibilities for fielding the technology on army vehicle systems will arise.’