On June 28, Leonardo DRS announced it has been down-selected by the U.S. Army, and will begin negotiations, to provide its mission equipment package for the service’s accelerated Initial Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) effort. The mission equipment package includes kinetic and non-kinetic defeat capabilities and an on-board radar.

The Leonardo DRS system, when integrated on the Stryker A1 platform, will provide maneuver Brigade Combat Teams with a full "detect-identify-track-defeat" capability required to defeat UAS, rotary-wing and fixed-wing threats. (Picture source: US Army)

The Leonardo DRS system, when integrated on the Stryker A1 platform, will provide maneuver Brigade Combat Teams with a full "detect-identify-track-defeat" capability required to defeat UAS, rotary-wing and fixed-wing threats. Leonardo DRS expects to receive the prototype contract in August of this year. The system, developed by Leonardo DRS’s Land Systems business unit, integrates mature technologies from industry teammates and partners, including Moog’s Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP), Raytheon’s Stinger missiles and Rada’s Multi-mission Hemispheric Radar. The IM-SHORAD solution provides both hard and soft kill capabilities to the warfighter while minimizing impacts on the mobility of the Stryker.

The unique RIwP turret supports multiple weapon configurations to give tactical commanders flexibility in various combat scenarios. The Leonardo DRS solution has the mobility, firepower and soldier protection required to fight forward at the lowest tactical levels. When fielded, this IM-SHORAD capability will provide tactical level commands the precision ground-to-ground and ground-to-air lethality necessary to fight and win across a multi-domain battlefield.

This down-select decision is part of the Army’s IM-SHORAD effort to deliver prototypes in 2019.