German military vehicle specialist Rheinmetall has secured a contract to deliver its StrikeShield hard-kill active protection system (APS) for the 209 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles that will be built for Hungary.
Hungary and Rheinmetall reached an agreement for the local production of the Lynx IFV in August 2020.
The StrikeShield APS order is worth over €140 million ($170.8M), according to the company. The system will be mechanically integrated into hybrid armor tiles on the Lynx. It protects a vehicle from shaped charge warhead threats such as rockets or missiles by neutralizing incoming projectiles before they hit the platform itself.
Instead of conventional passive add-on armor modules, the platform will feature spaced passive armor tiles that incorporate the components of the APS between an outer ply and inner tiles mounted on the vehicle’s hull.
StrikeShield has formed part of the Rheinmetall portfolio since 2006. In December 2019, the US Army awarded an $11m contract to Rheinmetall Protection Systems and its partner Unified Business Technologies (UBT) to test StrikeShield for its Stryker combat vehicle.
“The effects that passive armor protects you from are standardized and well understood. Hybrid designs are different. They allow us to do a much better job of dealing with new effects and threats, such as residual energy from a disabled rocket hitting the vehicle and deflagrating,” Dr Manfred Salk, CEO of Rheinmetall Protection Systems GmbH, explained.
“The combination of our passive and active technologies into hybrid systems therefore offer our customers unique benefits with regard to the protection capability, but also weight- and cost-efficiency.”
