Huntsville, Ala. — The General Dynamics Land System-made Stryker combat vehicle is the U.S. Army’s platform for its Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system rapidly developed and deployed to Europe to fill an urgent capability gap.
The company, a unit of General Dynamics, has now put the same SHORAD capability on a 10-ton robotic ground vehicle.
GDLS is displaying its Tracked Robot 10-ton (TRX) technology demonstrator – first unveiled as a robotic combat vehicle platform in October 2020 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference – again at AUSA’s Global Force Symposium March 28. This time the focus is on SHORAD with the operationally proven M-SHORAD turret.
The M-SHORAD is a Stryker A1 combat vehicle-based system that includes a Moog turret and a mission equipment package designed by Leonardo DRS. That package includes Raytheon’s Stinger vehicle missile launcher.
The Army has fielded M-SHORAD to four battalions under the current contract, but “we’re trying to demonstrate the ability to go beyond that both in the Stryker formations and heavy brigade formations, i.e. our heavy divisions, but we may have a potentially interesting idea with a TRX with SHORAD payload for our infantry or lighter infantry divisions,” Scott Taylor, GDLS’ director of U.S. business development, told Defense News in an interview just ahead of the symposium.
The TRX SHORAD robotic vehicle is part of a family of SHORAD vehicles GDLS is creating to show the art of the possible, according to Kendall Linson, company business development manager for Stryker.
A robotic SHORAD solution can go to the tactical edge of the battlefield, providing soldiers more stand-off from the enemy, Linson described.
GDLS is also working on a team to develop a SHORAD Stryker with a laser weapon, also known as the Directed Energy M-SHORAD. The first vehicles wrapped up testing at Yuma Proving Ground two weeks ago ahead of its first fielding to a platoon, according to the company.
Also in development is a high-power microwave solution for the Stryker using Epirus’ Leonidas high-power microwave capability designed to take out drone swarms. GDLS is also planning to integrate the capability onto the TRX by the end of the year.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
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- Source: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2023/03/28/general-dynamics-unit-puts-short-range-air-defense-on-robotic-vehicle/
