{"id":18295,"date":"2017-08-09T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/09\/boeing-gdls-team-up-on-mobile-shorad-system-for-september-shoot-off\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:42:25","slug":"boeing-gdls-team-up-on-mobile-shorad-system-for-september-shoot-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/space-missile-defense\/2017\/08\/09\/boeing-gdls-team-up-on-mobile-shorad-system-for-september-shoot-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing, GDLS team up on mobile SHORAD system for September Shoot-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. \u2014 Boeing and General Dynamics Land Systems have teamed up to build a short-range air defense system on a Stryker combat vehicle and plan to demonstrate the capability at a SHORAD shoot-off hosted by the Army next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team brought its Manuever SHORAD Launcher (MSL) Stryker to the Space and Missile Defense Symposium on August 8 before it heads to White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, where the Army will host the shoot-out designed to inform the service\u2019s way ahead for an interim SHORAD solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army identified a SHORAD capability gap in Europe last year and has been moving quickly to fill it by developing a system that will give maneuver forces the capability to defend against air threats from peer adversaries on the forward edge of the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[US Army Grapples With Short-Range Air Defense Gap in Europe<\/a><\/i>]
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The MSL Stryker is essentially made up of a modernized Avenger air defense system on the back of a Stryker reconfigured to accommodate the system on a turret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Avenger is designed to shoot a multitude of different missiles, can be equipped with a 30mm gun and potentially even directed energy weapons down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[’80s flashback: Boeing soups up old Avenger for short-range air defense gap<\/a><\/i>]
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With none of the maneuver formations having a SHORAD capability, GDLS leaned forward and invested its own money to configure Strykers to be able to integrate a SHORAD capability \u201cand that capability that the Army wanted to integrate was an Avenger,\u201d Kendall Linson, a business development manager at GDLS, told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Avenger is a SHORAD system that is now only resident in the Army National Guard and is used to defend the National Capitol Region from possible air threats. The Army will deploy an Avenger unit to Europe in February 2018 to join the nine-month rotation of an armored brigade combat team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team will shoot Longbow missiles at White Sands, but have designed the system to host any missile in a certain range and various guns along with a laser-range finder because it anticipates the Army wanted flexibility to incorporate a variety of ways to handle air threats depending on what maneuver formation is using the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Short-range air defense making a fast comeback<\/a><\/i>]
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\u201cWhen you start talking about SHORAD there is no one solution set,\u201d Linson said. \u201cYou have to look at dedicated or non-dedicated and that will factor what goes on the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army has requirements out there for SHORAD solutions, but it \u201cdoesn\u2019t have to fall on one platform to provide that capability,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance if a powerful laser weapon was incorporated, then it might make more sense to make that a dedicated platform designed to handle that specific weapon system because of the size, weight and power considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some units like the Infantry Brigade Combat Team may prefer to have a non-dedicated system that is equipped to take down drones.<\/p>\n\n\n