The Army said on Wednesday it has selected Leonardo DRS to lead the effort on delivering an interim short range air defense system (SHORAD) to be integrated on Stryker combat vehicles.
Leonardo is tasked with providing mission equipment for an Initial Maneuver (IM) SHORAD system capable of defeating unmanned air systems (UAS), rotary-wing and fixed-wing threats with prototype deliveries expected in spring 2019.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to work with the Army to deliver this critically important capability to our soldiers. We understand the challenges associated with an accelerated acquisition strategy and will leverage our recent successes with counter-UAS to meet the Army’s schedule,” Aaron Hankins, vice president of Leonardo DRS Land Systems, said in a statement.
Army officials downselected Leonardo DRS through the DoD Ordnance Technology Consortium after considering several IM-SHORAD options from Boeing [BA] and Israel’s Rafael.
A formal prototype contract is expected to be finalized in August, according to Leonardo officials.
Leonardo’s IM-SHORAD system incorporates Moog’s [MOG.A] Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP), Raytheon’s [RTN] Stinger missiles and Rada’s multi-mission Hemispheric Radar.
The RIwP turret allows for multiple weapon configurations to address proliferating UAS threats, according to Leonardo.
“Our long term investments and continuous work with the user-community to create a multi-mission turret for the soldier has been successful. We are happy to see the Army select RIwP to meet their IM-SHORAD requirements,” Jim Reidel, a senior official with Moog Defense Sector, said in a statement.
General Dynamics [GD] has been tasked with integrating the system on the Strykers.
“GD will integrate but under a separate contract that will be announced presumably when ours is announced later in August,” Mike Mount, a Leonardo DRS spokesman, told Defense Daily.
The Army previously approved a requirement for up to 144 IM-SHORAD systems to be deployed beginning in fiscal year 2021.