Staying ahead   

‘As well as maturing the core architecture, this is also demonstrating that MIPS can be applied to a real-world, fully functional family of survivability suite capabilities,’ he said.  

In the longer term, this will enable integration across architectures and technologies, such as the radio frequency (RF) work being conducted under the Bright Corvus umbrella and the systemic protection work carried out by the British Army’s Project Mercury.

 
Right time, right place 

The major focus is ensuring that the army has effective survivability at the right time and place, Newbery said. The goal is to use open architectures to enable survivability suite developments in a cost-effective and rapid way, and to improve integration with mission systems. 

‘However, MIPS is just one part of the puzzle,’ he added. ‘We also need the key technologies (the sensors and effectors, the smart algorithms and the crew interfaces) that will exploit MIPS to provide the game-changing capabilities we need.’ 

Newbery noted that while it is important to avoid focusing too heavily on a single scenario, the war in Ukraine has underlined rapid developments in the use of UAS, which is likely to be a core focus for self-protection systems in the years ahead.  

‘We need to know what the options are for responding to this, both directly and also [in terms of] indirect effects, in how ubiquitous UAS change the battlespace,’ he said. This reinforces the need to be on the front foot when it comes to capability development.  

‘We don’t know exactly what threat we’ll face, nor how that will be employed, but what we can say with certainty is that it will develop and respond to our actions. This means the one thing we can be sure of is the need for adaptability, hence our focus on the use of open architectures for survivability suites.’ 

Newbery emphasised the need for the technology to adapt into the future, with MIPS built on an architectural blueprint that allows the system to swap in and out new equipment, such as sensors or effectors, as well as more subtle changes to algorithms, processing technologies or threat libraries.  

‘What I think is becoming recognised is that the boundary between self-protection systems and situational awareness systems is increasingly blurred,’ Newbery added. ’Our greatest asset is the crew in the vehicle, and one of the most important functions of any survivability suite is providing that crew (and those networked with them) with real-time information on the battlefield around them, to help cut through the fog of war and let them do their job most effectively.’  

Low-cost threats 

David Hawkins, MIPS campaign director at Leonardo UK, noted that the widespread availability of low-cost anti-armour munitions and the increasing threat from UAS is driving the need for more front-line vehicles to have active protection systems (APS). 

‘The rapid evolution of these threats also highlights the need for vehicle protection systems to be able to be quickly reconfigured or updated in in order to provide effective countermeasures, which is where the dependable open-systems architecture approaches such as MIPS provide a key advantage over conventional, off-the-shelf APS,’ he said.  

Radar sensors that are optimised for detecting, tracking and intercepting missile and rocket threats are a key part of APS, he said. However, the growing threat from drones and small UAS means self-protection radar systems have had to evolve.  

‘Passive optical sensor technology is also being used in conjunction with the radars to carry out the initial detection of potential threats from missiles and targeting systems, allowing the active radar sensors to remain in a dormant state until they are alerted by the passive sensors, which limits any active vehicle signature and reduces the likelihood of detection and potential attack,’ said Hawkins.