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Lockheed Martin MAPS Shield to Be Deployed on U.S. Army’s War Machines

In this case, MAPS is not what you think. It stands for Modular Active Protection System, and it is how Lockheed Martin calls a set of technologies meant to increase protection for U.S. Army’s combat vehicles.
Lockheed Martin MAPS to begin testing 5 photos
Photo: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin MAPSLockheed Martin MAPSLockheed Martin MAPSLockheed Martin MAPS
Simply put, MAPS acts like a force shield without actually being a force shield. The technology comes as a kit that comprises the controller and software, acquisition and tracking sensors, and countermeasures. All these are meant to surround Army war machines with a bubble of detection and destruction that should make them impenetrable for enemy weapons.

More to the point, MAPS detects when an enemy weapon has been fired at, say, the Abrams tank it is fitted on. It then sends a signal to the vehicle’s countermeasures to engage and destroy the incoming projectile.

Last week, Lockheed Martin announced it signed a 36-month contract with the U.S. Army for the deployment and testing of five production-ready MAPS base kits, with an option to increase that number to 20. The Army will fit the technology on Abrams tanks, or Bradley and Stryker vehicles, to test and assess their functionality and use.

Going a bit outside the current MAPS system's capabilities, the Army also wants Lockheed to look into protection capabilities against underbelly explosions.

"Lockheed Martin partnered with the U.S. Army in 2014 to develop MAPS as a safe and secure vehicle defense system that protects warfighters from a variety of anti-armor threats,” said in a statement David Rohall, program manager for Advanced Ground Vehicle Systems at Lockheed Martin.

“Since then, the MAPS base kit has proven itself in multiple live-fire demonstrations. We’re ready to support integration and testing on a variety of Army combat vehicles, the final step before the Army makes a formal decision on fielding this capability.”

You can find all the available details on the Lockheed Martin MAPS at this link.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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