Rheinmetall Protection Systems GmbH (Bonn, Germany) is to equip Hungary’s new fleet of Lynx infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) with its StrikeShield hard-kill active protection system (APS) in a deal worth over €140 million.
StrikeShield is designed to provide protection from shaped-charge warhead threats, such as rockets or missiles, by neutralizing incoming projectiles before they strike the platform itself. It adopts a distributed system architecture, with sensors and countermeasures integrated into the contours of the vehicle.
Hungary ordered a fleet of over 200 Lynx KF41 IFVs from Rheinmetall in September 2020. The StrikeShield APS will be mechanically integrated into hybrid armor tiles on the vehicle. Instead of conventional passive add-on armor modules, the platform will feature spaced passive armor tiles that incorporate the components of the APS between an outer ply and inner tiles mounted on the vehicle’s hull. Rheinmetall contends that this hybrid approach provides an improved capability to counter new effects and threats, such as residual energy from a disabled rocket hitting the vehicle and deflagrating. – R. Scott