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2021-10-01

Leonardo, UK Team Test High-tech Protection for Army Vehicles

A cross-UK team of science and technology experts, led by Leonardo, has successfully trialled a high-tech new protection system approach for Army vehicles such as tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

Called MIPS (Modular Integration Protection System), the innovative approach brings together layers of electronic and physical protection technologies to equip vehicle crews with a formidable defensive shield.

The team included Abstract Solutions, CGI, Frazer-Nash, Lockheed Martin UK, RBSL, Roke and Ultra Electronics.

The demonstration of the developmental MIPS architecture was a key milestone of project Icarus, a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) technology demonstrator programme (TDP).

Icarus seeks to find a way to maximise the protection of British Army vehicles against current and future weapons in constantly evolving operational environments.

DSTL had launched the programme in response to threat of battlefield weapon systems such as modern Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) and Anti-Tank Guided Weapons (ATGWs).

During the trial, which took place at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Shoeburyness range in Essex in July, representative weapons were fired from short range at MIPS. The system integrated a combination of commercial off-the-shelf and surrogate sensors and countermeasures that were each adapted to integrate into MIPS.

Appropriate Response

The trial provided a comprehensive test of the ability of the MIPS sense, control and reaction sequence to respond appropriately to threats within extremely short timeframes.

MIPS is based on open-systems and model-driven principles to form the basis of an architectural and infrastructure approach to ground vehicle protection that supports the modular integration, affordable acquisition and safe deployment of ‘best-of-breed’ sensors and countermeasures to deliver UK operational independence.

This includes sensors and ‘soft’ protection systems that focus on early threat detection and attempt to disrupt, decoy or spoof the incoming threat and ‘hard’ countermeasure systems to intercept and physically defeat the incoming weapon system, known in military terminology as a ‘kinetic effect’.

A through-life capability roadmap and initial approach for acquisition has been produced to help inform UK MOD as it looks to establish a way forward to mature the MIPS capability and bring it into operational service.

Following the successful conclusion of the TDP, contract amendments have been placed to extend the programme to explore the potential application of MIPS to deliver counter-drone and counter-ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) capability solutions.

Through this additional work, the implications and modifications necessary with respect to the MIPS architecture, system model and draft MIPS Standard to enable this outcome will be established.

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