Leonardo DRS awarded USD 600+ Mn to provide mission equipment packages for US Army initial maneuver short-range air defense


Leonardo DRS announced on January 21 it has received an initial contract award for 28 Initial Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) Mission Equipment Packages (MEP) from General Dynamics Land Systems in support of the U.S. Army's recent IM-SHORAD production award. The award, received on December 2nd 2020, is the first of a five-year contract valued at more than $600 million.
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Stryker A1 IM-SHORAD (Picture source: GDLS)


The goal of the IM-SHORAD (Initial Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense) program is to provide tactical ground units with improved air defense capabilities against emerging threats. In order to provide a next-generation protection capability to forward-deployed units, the U.S. Army’s IM-SHORAD solution will feature an integrated suite of mission systems including radar, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sighting system, electronic warfare package as well as non-lethal and lethal effects including Hellfire rockets; Stinger missiles; and a 30 mm M230LF cannon.

The IM-SHORAD mounted on a Stryker A1 8x8 armored vehicle will provide 360 degrees of air-defense protection through a mix of guns, missiles, rockets, and onboard sensors: the centerpiece of the MEP is Moog's Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret with multiple kinetic effectors including the XM914 30mm cannon and M240 7.62mm machine gun, along with Stinger and Longbow Hellfire missiles. The MEP also includes an on-board Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar (MHR) to provide persistent 360 degrees of aerial surveillance, identification friend or foe and other mission essential technologies.. The U.S. Army has decided to use the Stryker 8x8 wheeled armored to develop a new short-range air defense system fitted with direct-fire weapons and missiles. The Stryker platform was chosen because it has better protection and in regards to size, weight and power considerations, especially for the possibility of integrating a directed energy weapon in the future.

This production contract award marks the successful completion of an aggressive prototype program that delivered nine prototypes and completed government testing in just two years.

Leonardo DRS will begin delivering the MEPs to General Dynamics for final integration onto purpose-built Strykers in 2022.