The
Global Combat Systems sector of Britain's BAE Systems
will reveal the new Armadillo concept of its CV90
armored combat vehicle family at the Eurosatory
2010 trade show outside Paris.This is a concept
of a flexible family of vehicles of modular type
built around the CV90 platform. The Armadillo is
an ideal armored combat vehicle, which offers a
balance between high mobility, high payload and
extremely high protection; should have a practical
and effective interface for digitally equipped soldiers
and the digital battlespace; should be reliable
and affordable; and above all, offer a low logistics
footprint. BAE Systems has analyzed the degree of
commonality between variants in existing CV90 vehicles,
and overlaid on this the benefits of a modular approach
to future variants based on the Armadillo standard.
Based on cost, engineering effort expended and the
number of major common components, the company believes
it can achieve between 65 percent and 88 percent
commonality for turreted, personnel carrier and
specialist engineering vehicles.
Variants:
The
Armadillo family will include ambulance, mortar,
personnel carrier, command-and-control, logistics
support and recovery variants, depending on customer
demand. Future development may well examine other
variants, such as a vehicle-launched bridge, with
a continued focus on improving the payload/protection
balance.
The
Armadillo is armed with an Lemur remote
weapon station. Lemur™ is a family
of gyro-stabilized fragment protected, electro-optical
sights and remotely controlled (RC) weapon
systems. The flexible modular design allows
Lemur™ to be customized for a large
variety of requirements. It can be used
in a number of applications on different
types of platforms.
Protection
The
standard level of protection is already
high. "Resistance to mines in the 8-10
kilogram area is already considered pretty
good - we have achieved protection well
in excess of the 10 kilogram bracket; we
are setting new standards with the Armadillo
program," said Hakan Karlsson, vice
president of marketing communications for
BAE Global Combat Systems in Ornskoldsvik,
Sweden. Armor protection also is high, at
"well above Level 5," and the
entire vehicle architecture has been built
with ease of interoperability with tomorrow's
digital soldier in mind. The
Armadillo is equipped with a Saab LEDS150
hard-kill self-protection system. The LEDS-150
is an active defence system and typically
comprises laser warning sensors, ADC-150
active defence controller AD, a number of
munition confirmation and tracking sensors,
and high-speed directed launchers, which
allow the combination of soft- and hard-kill
countermeasure deployment capability to
the platform, optional displays, and interconnecting
harnesses. The hard kill feature of the
LEDS-150 product is characterised by its
capability to physically destroy the efficiency
of the terminal ballistic capability of
attacking munitions without residual penetration
of the protected vehicle. The hard kill
system detects and tracks a single or simultaneous
threats and calculates if the attacking
munition will hit the platform or not. The
system determines the best inertial intercept
position and provides the slew and firing
commands to the launchers.
Propulsion
The
Armadillo is motorised with the same engine
and it uses the same suspension as the standard
CV90 vehicle.
Accessories
The
Armadillo is equipped with an external fire
suppression equipment to deal with urban
warfare attacks from Molotov cocktails and
the like.
Specifications
Armament
Machine
gun 7.62 or 12.7 mm caliber
Country
users
Prototype
Designer
Company
BAE
Systems
Accessories
Night
vision, NBC protection,
fire suppression equipment.
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