Photo: BAE Systems
If you've been watching our coverage of military vehicles these past few years, then the term Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) might ring a bell or two. If not, here's the rundown: AMPV is a family of next-generation combat vehicles to be fielded by American Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCT).
The AMPV family is designed by European contractor BAE Systems, and at the time of writing it comprises five different variants, all of them already selected by the American military to serve its combat needs General Purpose, Mortar Carrier, Mission Command, Medical Treatment and Medical Evacuation.
The five various incarnations of the vehicle platform are meant to replace the M113 tracked armored personal carrier, a military workhorse that has been in service since the 1960s. There is no definite timetable for the switch, but the change is coming, and it might bring with exciting new variants of the platform as well.
You see, the AMPV is a sort of modular platform on which a variety of equipment can be fitted (up to 30 different turrets), especially when the so-called External Mission Equipment Package (ExMEP) top plate is installed.
It is this piece of hardware that earlier this year gave birth to a drone-fighting AMPV. Running the Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret made by a company called Moog, the prototype was capable of detecting, tracking, identifying, and defeating drones and stationary targets using proximity rounds.
This week's AMPV piece of news concerns the same sixth prototype and its ExMEP top plate, but this time, it is equipped with something called the Patria NEMO. That would be a remote-controlled mortar system that can fire 120 mm rounds.
This seventh AMPV configuration is the result of work conducted by defense contractors BAE Systems, Kongsberg, and Patria, and the U.S. Army. It can be used to provide indirect and direct fire support to troops on the ground, and it does so with quite effectiveness.
More to the point the prototype can shoot mortar rounds at five enemy targets at the same time, all in the span of just four seconds and while the firing platform is either stationary or on the move.
What's really important about this weapons platform is that the prototype has already been delivered to the U.S. Army for testing. Over the following months, the vehicle and its systems will be put through their paces at various locations across the U.S.
If successful, the AMPV Turreted Mortar vehicle, as it's called, will complement the existing Mortar Carrier version, coming as a "significant enhancement that would not only allow for increased capabilities and force protection, but also keep Soldiers completely under the armor protection provided by the vehicle."
Neither of the parties involved said anything about how long the tests of the prototype will last.
The five various incarnations of the vehicle platform are meant to replace the M113 tracked armored personal carrier, a military workhorse that has been in service since the 1960s. There is no definite timetable for the switch, but the change is coming, and it might bring with exciting new variants of the platform as well.
You see, the AMPV is a sort of modular platform on which a variety of equipment can be fitted (up to 30 different turrets), especially when the so-called External Mission Equipment Package (ExMEP) top plate is installed.
It is this piece of hardware that earlier this year gave birth to a drone-fighting AMPV. Running the Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP) turret made by a company called Moog, the prototype was capable of detecting, tracking, identifying, and defeating drones and stationary targets using proximity rounds.
This week's AMPV piece of news concerns the same sixth prototype and its ExMEP top plate, but this time, it is equipped with something called the Patria NEMO. That would be a remote-controlled mortar system that can fire 120 mm rounds.
This seventh AMPV configuration is the result of work conducted by defense contractors BAE Systems, Kongsberg, and Patria, and the U.S. Army. It can be used to provide indirect and direct fire support to troops on the ground, and it does so with quite effectiveness.
More to the point the prototype can shoot mortar rounds at five enemy targets at the same time, all in the span of just four seconds and while the firing platform is either stationary or on the move.
What's really important about this weapons platform is that the prototype has already been delivered to the U.S. Army for testing. Over the following months, the vehicle and its systems will be put through their paces at various locations across the U.S.
If successful, the AMPV Turreted Mortar vehicle, as it's called, will complement the existing Mortar Carrier version, coming as a "significant enhancement that would not only allow for increased capabilities and force protection, but also keep Soldiers completely under the armor protection provided by the vehicle."
Neither of the parties involved said anything about how long the tests of the prototype will last.
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