NATO CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles Gain Iron Fist Active Protection After $150M Award.

BAE Systems Hägglunds has awarded contracts worth about $150 million to integrate the Iron Fist Active Protection System on CV90 infantry fighting vehicles operated by European NATO members. The move reflects a broader shift in NATO ground warfare, where survivability against modern anti-armor weapons now depends on rapid, automated defensive systems rather than armor alone.

Elbit Systems announced on January 6, 2026, that BAE Systems Hägglunds has awarded new contracts totaling about $150 million for the delivery and integration of the Iron Fist Active Protection System on CV90 infantry fighting vehicles operated by European NATO member states. The decision reflects a sharp reassessment of armored vehicle survivability across Europe, driven by the realities of modern high-intensity warfare where precision anti-armor weapons, loitering munitions, and top-attack threats have become routine on the battlefield. For NATO land forces, protection is no longer measured solely by armor thickness, but by the ability of vehicles to sense, decide, and defeat incoming threats in real time.
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Iron Fist APS will equip NATO European CV90s, boosting survivability against ATGMs, RPGs, loitering munitions, and tank rounds while preserving maneuver freedom in high-intensity combat (Picture source: Elbit Systems).

Elbit is clearly leaning on a credibility marker that European procurement teams understand: live-fire evidence. The company points to a September 2025 demonstration in Europe where Iron Fist reportedly intercepted more than a dozen 120 mm kinetic-energy APFSDS tank rounds, a rare claim in active protection because long-rod penetrators compress engagement timelines and demand extreme timing accuracy. Elbit says the event drew senior military and industry representatives, framing the trial as a validation against the kinds of high-end threats that define peer conflict, not just irregular warfare.

To appreciate why CV90 fleets are being paired with APS now, it helps to look at what these vehicles already bring to the fight and what still threatens them. Across Europe, CV90 variants typically field stabilized medium-caliber autocannons, notably 30 mm Bushmaster II, 35 mm Bushmaster III, or the Swedish 40 mm Bofors L/70 family, usually backed by a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and smoke launchers for rapid obscuration. In practical tactical terms, that armament is built for mechanized combined arms: high-rate fire to suppress infantry, armor-piercing rounds to defeat IFVs and many older APCs, and programmable airburst ammunition in the Bushmaster family to engage troops behind cover and in defilade. For longer-range lethality, some modern CV90 turrets integrate anti-tank guided missiles, with the Dutch CV9035 mid-life upgrade publicly documented as adding a twin launcher for Spike LR2, giving the platoon the reach to engage armor well beyond cannon distance.

Iron Fist is intended to keep that firepower present at the decisive point by breaking the classic ambush equation. Iron Fist is a hard-kill APS that combines distributed sensors and a fast fire-control loop to detect, classify, track, and engage incoming threats around the vehicle. Detailed briefings on the system describe four radars and four electro-optic sensors operating in the long-wave infrared band feeding a central computer, with AI-based algorithms supporting threat characterization and the switch from search to track mode. Interception is performed by a mortar-like launched effector whose detonation timing is trimmed via data loaded into the interceptor fuse, because timing is the key variable when the combined closing speeds can approach roughly 2,000 m/s in kinetic engagements. Instead of relying on a cloud of fragments, Iron Fist’s concept is centered on a shock-wave effect intended to break the envelope of shaped-charge projectiles or destabilize long rods, reducing penetration by forcing a poor angle of attack. Elbit has also described reaction times compatible with defeating an RPG fired from as close as 50 meters, a range bracket that matters in dense urban fighting where warning time is minimal.

An IFV protected by a credible APS can accept more exposure while bounding between covered positions, can hold a firing line longer while dismounts clear close terrain, and can maneuver in built-up areas with a narrower dependence on perfectly timed smoke. Integration details matter here, and the CV90 ecosystem has already shown how Iron Fist is physically laid onto a turreted IFV: reporting on the Dutch CV9035NL upgrade describes radars positioned at the turret corners, electro-optics mounted high for 360-degree coverage, and rotating launchers at the turret rear firing grenade-like effectors that detonate ahead of the incoming projectile. That same Dutch configuration pairs the 35 mm cannon with Spike LR2, whose manufacturer's literature lists a 5.5 km ground-launch range and multiple employment modes, including fire-and-forget and man-in-the-loop options, a combination that lets crews fight both near and far while relying on APS to survive the first return shot.

Salvo attacks, top-attack profiles, and the growing role of loitering munitions and UAS mean survivability remains a layered problem, mixing signatures, soft-kill countermeasures, passive armor, and hard-kill interception. Still, the logic behind this award is straightforward: CV90 fleets are central to NATO’s mechanized deterrence posture, and Iron Fist offers a compact hard-kill layer designed to defeat rockets, ATGMs, loitering munitions, and even kinetic tank ammunition. As Elbit Land General Manager Yehuda (Udi) Vered put it, the contract reflects growing confidence in the system, with the company positioning its September 2025 firing as the proof point that will drive wider adoption across European formations.