HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — BAE Systems has introduced a generic top plate that allows the Army’s Armored Multipurpose Vehicle to easily swap turrets for different mission roles.
The company brought a complete AMPV with a 30mm unmanned turret from Elbit Systems to the Association of the US Army’s Global Power Symposium held this week in Huntsville, Alabama, to demonstrate the capability.
BAE removed the original warhead from the AMPV and put in its own internally funded and developed warhead to create the External Mission Equipment Package, or ExMEP. The design is based on a study of turrets “of all kinds, all over the world,” Megan Mitchell, BAE’s director of business development for Army combat systems, said in an interview at the event.
ExMEP “allows [the AMPV] to be able to accept over 30 different sized turrets,” he added. “The idea behind it is that it allows the military to basically expand the scope of what they can do with the AMPV.”
The Army’s AMPV, designed to replace the M113 armored personnel carrier and reaching full production in 2023, is available in five variants, whether deployed or planned: General Purpose. medical evacuation; medical treatment; dispatch order; and mortar.
“We’re now in full production with the first five variants and that allows us a bit more scope to be able to see what it can do next,” Mitchell said. “It’s an extremely versatile platform and it already performs five very different mission roles and to be able to expand that capability … there are a lot more M113s out there than the five variants can do.
“What we really wanted to look at is where the Army’s need is and what could we possibly create that would allow us to work with the Army to say, ‘Oh, if you need an anti-UAS, we can integrate that. If you need that kind of turret, we can integrate it,” he said.
The company last year proved it could quickly integrate a Moog-developed anti-drone turret into the AMPV and successfully tested the capability at a live-fire event in Arizona. BAE said it hit both ground and air targets in the November 2023 test just 15 months after the ExMEP development effort began.
Working with the Army, where both the BAE and the Army funded a portion of the effort, the company incorporated Patria’s 120mm unmanned mortar turret capability using its ExMEP, Mitchell said. BAE delivered the vehicle to the military in January for tests that will take place at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in the spring and summer. More testing will continue in the fall.
A flexible top plate that allows for the integration of a wide range of turrets is not just aimed at the US military, Mitchell noted, but creates options for potential foreign customers who may have specific requirements that go beyond the US Army’s AMPV variants.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist who covers land warfare for Defense News. He has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
Read the original at Defence247.gr
