BAE Systems Hägglunds’ BvS 10 outfitted with some hard kill mounted defenses. (Andrew White / Breaking Defense)
DSEI 2023 — BAE Systems Hägglunds wants to expand the use cases for its all-terrain BvS10 armored personnel carrier (APC) by adding a counter-drone capability – as worry spreads throughout military services about the unmanned threat to, well, everything.
The twin-cab, tracked APC, which is currently in service or scheduled to enter service in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, UK and most recently the US, has been heavily utilized in the past decade across a wide range of extreme environments including Afghanistan, Mali, Norway and Sweden to support troop transport and material.
But here at DSEI, the Swedish subsidiary of the British defense giant will showcase the BvS10 with a Mobile Short Range Air Defence (M-SHORAD) capability, though the company said it’s not currently pursuing any specific request for the cUAV capability. That could just be a matter of time, though.
“Counter-UAV is a topical subject today, hence why today’s configuration is being displayed,” BAE director for product strategy for the BvS10, Darren Restarick, told Breaking Defense ahead of the expo in London.
FULL COVERAGE: Breaking Defense at DSEI 2023
Militaries the world over have jumped into the cUAS game, especially after observing the frightful effectiveness of all manner of drones on the battlefield of Ukraine.
“We are trying to create awareness that BvS10 has a broader capability, conceptually moving the BvS10 from being an APC to modular fighting vehicle able to mount a vast array of cannon, machine guns, anti-tank guided munitions, folding-fin aerial rockets and man portable air defense systems to address almost any threat in the modern operating environment without impacting under armor volume for either dismount and/or reloads depending on role,” he added.
At DSEI, a BvS10 M-SHORAD demonstrator vehicle will feature Teledyne FLIR Defense’s R20 radar located on the rear cab of the platform, enabling it to detect Group 1-4 uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
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Also located on the rear cab will be Moog’s Flexible Missile Platform (FMP), which will feature an Arnold Defense Fletcher launcher equipped with four APKWS rockets from BAE Systems, and Saab’s RBS-70NG missile. Additional missiles can be carried inside the rear cab with crew using a top-hatch to reload the FMP when required, the company said.
BVs10’s front cab is equipped with Escribano’s Guardian 2 remote weapon station which features a Dillon Aerospace 7.62mm mini-gun. The demonstrator has yet to be fitted with a command and control mission suite, Restarick confirmed before highlighting the M-SHORAD variant will not lose any internal volume for troop transportation.
However, the BvS10 will not be exhibited with any kind of soft-kill C-UAS capability, although Restarick suggested to Breaking Defense that Hägglunds was considering the integration of High Energy Laser (HEL) technology in the future to support M-SHORAD requirements.
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Counter-drone capability or not, in August 2022, the US Army selected the unarmored variant of the BvS10-Beowulf to satisfy its Cold Weather All Terrain (CATV) requirement to support mobility in the Arctic and High North – an area of increasing concern to US officials.
In December 2022, Germany, Sweden and UK governments also signed a multi-national agreement to pursue the European CATV program using BvS10 as a baseline vehicle. For that, however, Restarick told Breaking Defense that an M-SHORAD capability was “not a significant target” for this particular program.
