A new defense against incoming fire?

I've been aware of so-called 'active defense' systems for vehicles for some years. The Israeli Trophy system, for example, has successfully protected that nation's military vehicles against missiles fired by Hizbollah terrorists. However, the USA has not fielded such a system in Iraq or Afghanistan, as the main danger there has been from IED's rather than missiles.

The latter danger is increasing in Afghanistan, as the Taliban tries to ambush American resupply convoys. In response, the US is deploying something new. Ares reports:

According to budget documents submitted to Congress in February, an experimental vehicle-mounted active protection system that can defeat an incoming RPG before it hits the vehicle may be getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan.

As part of a packet of fiscal year '12 budget documents DARPA provided to Congress, the agency reports that its vehicle-mounted Iron Curtain and Crosshairs programs are being melded into one system, and are being readied for "transition to combat forces in the 2010/2011 time frame".

Diagram portraying Iron Curtain active vehicle defense system

Crosshairs, developed by Mustang Technology Group, uses the Boomerang acoustic gunshot-detection sensor to cue the vehicle's remote-operated gun so the system can detect, locate and engage shooters.

DARPA announced last October that Crosshairs was deploying to Afghanistan, and in its fiscal year ’12 request to Congress it zeroed out funding for the program, as opposed to the previous year’s request for $3.9 million. But the ’12 doc also tells us that "the Crosshairs sensor system is being integrated with the Iron Curtain Active Protection System (IC-APS) on four up-armored vehicles", after which "the Crosshairs systems will be ready for field testing".

This is news. Marrying the Crosshairs system with the previously experimental - and undeployed - Iron Curtain active protection system would be a huge step in active protection capability for U.S. forces, allowing moving vehicles to detect, locate, and defeat both enemy snipers and incoming RPG rounds.

Iron Curtain - a system which is mounted to the top of a vehicle that uses radar to detect an incoming round, identify it, and deploy a countermeasure from a downward-facing array - has been in testing for several years, but this is the first hint we’ve seen that it might actually be used in an operational setting.

. . .

A spokesperson form the Marine Corps Systems Command - which runs the MRAP office - while refusing to comment specifically, emails that "we are assessing the maturity of the technology to determine the potential to meet an urgent requirement from theater. As in any capability assessment it would include performance in an array of operational conditions that are representative of theater environments. While some of those relevant conditions have proven successful the system must fully demonstrate the required performance across the operational conditions."

We’ll have to wait and see if RPGs start mysteriously exploding in midair for confirmation that this system has finally made it to theater.

There's more at the link. Here's a 2008 DARPA video clip of the Iron Curtain system undergoing 'live fire' testing.

That's pretty impressive! Note the care with which the designers have ensured that the defensive system fires as nearly straight down as possible. If I were an infantryman, walking near a vehicle fitted with this system, I'd be reassured to know I wouldn't get shot by my own defenses!

Peter