BAE Systems on Monday unveiled a counter-drone prototype version of its Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), with the payload integrated on a new modular top plate the company said opens possibilities for future variants of the platform.
Jim Miller, BAE Systems’ vice president of business development, told reporters on Monday the company developed the new External Mission Equipment Package (ExMEP) top plate over the last year, which enabled the company to integrate the counter-UAS turret on the AMPV within 36 hours.
“What we’re trying to show is our ability to integrate quickly to hit the Army’s requirements and give them solutions while keeping it pretty low cost and being able to move fast,” Miller said during a briefing at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. “We got [the turret] on a Monday and on a Wednesday we were tracking drones with it.”
BAE Systems’ AMPV is the Army’s replacement for its legacy M113 armored personnel carriers, with the service reaching the “first unit equipped” marker for the new platform in March (Defense Daily, March 14).
The Army recently awarded the company a full-rate production contract for AMPV, which may be worth up to $1.6 billion, and is delivering five current variants: a general purpose vehicle, the mission command vehicle, a mortar carrier, a medical evacuation vehicle and a medical treatment vehicle (Defense Daily, Sept. 1).
“We think we can put just about anything on an AMPV very quickly as a result [of the ExMEP], which gives the Army lots of options. If they want an engineering vehicle with a remote weapon system on it or if they want an air defense vehicle, it’s very easy to do. If they want some kind of rocket launcher…or it’s on a turret, we can make it work,” Miller said.
Miller noted the AMPV CUAS, which will go through a live fire demonstration next month, features the same Moog Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret that’s on the Army’s Stryker Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) platform.
“We also want the Army to tell us if they like it or not, what they don’t like about it or what they would do with it. But, our assumption is that the heavy brigades in the Army are not going to want an M-SHORAD Stryker as a different vehicle in their formation. We’ve heard that from some folks in the Army. And that’s why we chose to go with [AMPV CUAS] first,” Miller told reporters.
BAE Systems is also working with the Army to demonstrate a turreted mortar payload on AMPV utilizing the new ExMEP top plate.
“We’ve worked closely with just about everybody that does mission enhancement packages, turrets, engineering equipment. And we developed this capability that’s pretty much like a Picatinny rail,” Miller said, referring to the rifle component that allows for attaching upgrades or accessories.