The U.S. Army is developing a framework that will support the installation of active protection systems on ground combat vehicles.
The open architecture system called Modular Active Protection System will come in three variants, including the Trophy APS for the Abrams tank; the Iron Curtain APS for the Stryker vehicle; and the Iron Fist APS for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Army said Tuesday.
Col. Kevin Vanyo, program manager for emerging capabilities at the Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, said MAPS will include controller software and hardware that will work to activate APS once it is deployed.
MAPS is the Army’s near-term effort to develop active protection measures that will boost protection for combat vehicles without increasing the tanks’ weight.
Vanyo added that putting more armor on tanks is not feasible because of weight limits, noting that the Abrams tank is currently too heavy to pass through some bridges.
The Army aims to field Trophy APS by 2020 and make decisions on the other two variants during the second quarter of fiscal year 2018.
Army personnel at Redstone Arsenal are testing various APS platforms that can be deployed once MAPS has matured.
