The Hit Avoidance Program for FCS Manned Ground Vehicles

April 25, 2006 It makes sense on the battlefield to avoid getting hit, but the degree of science being employed to enable this for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicles (MGVs) is extraordinary. BAE Systems leads the hit avoidance integrated product team for FCS MGVs, and with support from MGV teammate General Dynamics, is responsible for integrating the Raytheon-developed hard-kill Active Protection Subsystem (APS) with soft-kill countermeasures, obscurants (jammers and decoys), and decision aid software into the overall protection system. An APS comprises a sensor subsystem (threat warner and tracking sensor), countermeasure subsystem and rapid data processing capability. The threat warner identifies a threat then the tracking sensor determines the threat’s size, shape and direction. The software then decides an appropriate countermeasure and deploys the countermeasure which physically intercepts it, all, obviously, in a big hurry. The layered hit avoidance suite will enable full-spectrum survivability against rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds, top attack munitions and tank-fired kinetic energy (KE) rounds.

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