Northrop Grumman Demos Active Protection Against Anti-Tank Guided Munitions

Northrop Grumman has demonstrated advanced vehicle Active Protection System (APS) technologies against Anti-Tank Guided Munitions (ATGMs) during the US Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) sponsored Soft-kill Rodeo in Huntsville between October 5-31.

The “Rodeo” was developed to demonstrate and test soft-kill capability against real world threats. Using its Passive Infrared Cueing Sensors system, Northrop Grumman successfully generated threat warning of inbound ATGMs and provided a cue for the soft kill countermeasure system (SKCM), the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The MEOS identified and countered all types of threats fired at its APS system, making this the fourth consecutive time the system has performed well in field tests to defeat threats.

'Soft' kill systems are divided into on-board and expendable countermeasures broken down into two 'pre-emptive action' that is directed to generally prevent lock-on of a threat sensor; which alters the signature of the target by either concealing the platform signature or enhancing the signature of the background.

'Reactive action' countermeasures focus on breaking the lock of a threat already homing in on a certain target and focuses on signature limitation, augmentation or reduction.