OREANDA-NEWS.  General Dynamics Land Systems is leading an effort to develop the first North American combat vehicle with a fully integrated Active Protection System (APS). The company recently concluded a successful Critical Design Review of its APS project. The next major step is to validate a fully integrated APS on a Light Armored Vehicle III (LAVIII) demonstrator, scheduled for later this year.

Active Protection Systems enhance crew protection, survivability and situational awareness against advanced man-portable weapons by intercepting and defeating threats before they reach the vehicle. It is the only technology capable of defeating certain threats without significantly sacrificing vehicle mobility and transportability.

"General Dynamics Land Systems has more than 20 years of experience with APS technology integration and development and we are actively engaged in industry studies, research and development," said Sonya Sepahban, Land Systems senior vice president, engineering, development and technology. "We will continue to leverage our world-class systems engineering and unique survivability expertise, coupled with broad knowledge of APS technologies, to implement this capability on a variety of platforms for our customers."

The General Dynamics-led team will demonstrate APS technology readiness and integration efficiencies, and reduce the time it takes to bring this lifesaving survivability technology to customers. General Dynamics is funding the effort and is providing program leadership and execution, along with system design authority, supplier management, integrated design, hardware build and integration and test management support.