WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Netherlands awarded BAE Systems a contract last month to test and verify the Iron Fist active protection system (APS) on its CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
BAE did not disclose in a company statement the contract amount to integrate Iron Fist onto the BAE Systems-made vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The test phase will pre-qualify the APS against threat specifications determined by the Netherlands’ Defence Ministry, which will tee up a decision on the next phase of the program in early 2018, Hans de Goeij, project manager at the Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation, said in the BAE statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Should the Dutch government decide to proceed with Iron Fist, it would be the first NATO country with an APS “of its kind” on combat vehicles, according to BAE Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Army is expected to make key decisions on a way forward to integrate APS onto a variety of combat vehicles next summer. The service will start characterizing APS offerings on Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Stryker combat vehicles starting this month. The Army has already worked on characterization testing on the M1 Abrams tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Said to be in the running along with Iron Fist is another Israeli offering\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Rafael Advanced Defense Systems\u2019 Trophy\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as well as Rheinmetall Defence\u2019s Active Defense System of Germany and Artis Corporation\u2019s Iron Curtain of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Trophy has been fielded on approximately 100 vehicles in Israel and has been used in combat extensively since 2009, Iron Fist was being developed head-to-head with Trophy to be fielded by the Israeli government, but was never integrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service is keeping an open mind in terms of what represents the best possible solution, according to Maj. Gen. David Bassett, the Army\u2019s program executive officer for Army combat vehicles. While one system may work well on a Bradley, another system may be better suited for Stryker or Abrams, for instance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Netherlands awarded BAE Systems a contract last month to test and verify the Iron Fist active protection system on its CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[46,11,14,47,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3330],"class_list":["post-17956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-global","category-land","category-mideast-africa","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"S7HKWDH2FRDDJJD6BABKC7LDIU","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2017\/01\/04\/bae-to-integrate-israeli-iron-fist-on-dutch-combat-vehicles\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n