GDLS debuts short-range air defense option for light units
As the Army looks for solutions for a Short-Range Air Defense system for lighter units, General Dynamics Land Systems is debuting an option using a Pandur 6x6 vehicle built originally for the Austrian army.
The Pandur vehicle comes from GDLS' sister company — European Land Systems company Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge — and was developed in the 1980s. Yet, 'while it was developed over 40 years ago, it's gone through several iterations and generational changes and updates of technologies and requirements changes,' said Ray Moldovan, GDLS business development manager. The new version is called Pandur Evolution, or EVO for short.
GDLS already provides the Stryker combat vehicle for the Army's fielded Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system, the Sgt. Stout. There is a counter-unmanned aircraft systems version of the Stryker, as well.
While there are similarities to the Stryker, the Pandur EVO is 'highly mobile, highly survivable, scalable,' and has ballistic protection, Moldovan told Defense News. 'It does have a smaller footprint, it's lighter weight.'
The Army is pursuing a number of M-SHORAD modernization efforts following the service's rapid fielding of an interim solution.
Development of the M-SHORAD system took place in record time as the result of an urgent operational need identified in 2016 for the European theater. The Army received the requirement to build the system in February 2018. It took 19 months from the time the service generated the requirement to the delivery of prototypes for testing in the first quarter of 2020.
The M-SHORAD is a Stryker combat vehicle-based platform that includes a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS and RTX's Stinger vehicle missile launcher. The first platoon to receive it deployed to Europe in 2021.
The Army fielded its third Sgt. Stout battalion at Fort Cavazos, Texas. The first M-SHORAD battalion remains in Germany, and the second is based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
US Army's short-range air defense efforts face review board
The service is working on a version of the capability with a laser weapon that is not yet a program of record but has been deployed to the U.S. Central Command theater. It is also working to replace the Stinger missile. Two teams are competing for that work.
The Army released a request for information to industry for a lighter SHORAD solution in the summer of 2024 and is expected to finalize a directed requirement this year. The RFI asks for solutions 'to provide air defense capability to protect dismounted maneuver forces in the near, mid and far terms.'
The request also notes there will be a focus on systems that can be transported by C-130 and are able to be airdropped or sling loaded. They should also be capable of defeating unmanned aircraft systems both small and large, as well as helicopters and fixed-wing close support aircraft.
While the Pandur has a weight rating of about 20 tons, it is roughly 10 tons lighter than the Sgt. Stout, Moldovan noted. The vehicle still has room for a vehicle commander, gunner, SHORAD operator and robotic systems operator in the troop compartment.
The Pandur SHORAD system uses the same Moog RIP turret that is on the Sgt. Stout. The same turret has been integrated on GDLS' robotic combat vehicle called TRX.
General Dynamics unit puts short-range air defense on robotic vehicle
GDLS will be taking the vehicle to the Army's MFIX, or the Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in July. The company responded to the Army's RFI with both the Pandur and 10-ton TRX options, according to Moldovan. TRX will also be present and operated in tandem at MFIX.
The Pandur was developed for the Austrian army, and Portugal, Belgium, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are also customers. While the vehicle is foreign, GDLS built Pandurs in Michigan in the mid-1990s, said Kendall Linson, company business development manager. The company could restart that line again if the Army settled on the option, he noted.
'I think Pandur would align with a counter-UAS capability simply because of the weight of the vehicle and the utility and survivability of the vehicle,' Linson said. 'A lot of counter-UAS, basically the solutions that they're looking at don't provide that survivability that the Pandur would offer.'
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