Rheinmetall has announced that Hungary has ordered the company’s StrikeShield hard-kill active protection system (APS) for that that country’s fleet of 209 KF41 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles (IFV).

The system was developed in-house by Rheinmetall and, rather than being an add-on system to the vehicle’s turret like most systems, its sensors and effectors are integrated with the vehicle’s armoured tiles.

Rheinmetall says StrikeShield is the third generation of its Active Defence System (ADS) technology, a specific variant of hard-kill APS, and comprises a distributed system whose sensors and countermeasures are integrated into the contours of the entire vehicle.

The company claims it has the lowest emissions in the electromagnetic spectrum, the fastest reaction time in ambush and multi-hit situations, and that it protects the vehicle from shaped charge warhead threats such as rockets or missiles.

“We see huge benefits from hybrid designs”, Dr Manfred Salk, CEO of Rheinmetall Protection Systems GmbH said in a release. “The effects that passive armour protects you from are standardised 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,” he added. “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.”

The KF41 Lynx is one of two contenders for the Australian Army’s LAND 400 Phase 3 IFV requirement to replace the M113AS4 in service, and an APS will be a key requirement for the successful vehicle.

ADBR has published an extended feature article on APS in the Mar-Apr 2021 issue of the magazine, which is online now.