Rheinmetall AG,
“Protection, Precision, Power”: Rheinmetall Defence's motto for Eurosatory 2008 perfectly sums up the extensive array of products and projects the company is presenting this year in Paris, including the new Command and Multipurpose Vehicle, better known by its German initials GFF. For today's deployment-oriented armed forces, protected vehicles are a vital necessity: the Bundeswehr alone plans to procure some 5.000 protected vehicles by the year 2015.
Among the basic requirements for these vehicles are air transportability and strong protection against ballistic threats, shrapnel, landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs); they also need to be able to operate in an NBC environment as well as offering good electronic protection and a low signature; moreover, the crew has to be able to defend itself without leaving the safety of the fighting compartment. Other required features include the ability to carry a heavy, high-volume load. They also need to be able to transport personnel, perform well in difficult terrain, and possess a long operating range. Another aspect is modularity, which offers a variety of benefits to the armed forces, including streamlined logistics and simplified training requirements. In designing these revolutionary new vehicles, Rheinmetall developers have taken all of these factors into account.
Working in cooperation with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), Rheinmetall has developed a family of highly protected vehicles in the 5.3 to 9.3-ton class known as the Armoured Multi Purpose Vehicle (AMPV). Designed exclusively to meet the needs of the modern armed forces, it encompasses two basic vehicle types.
The smaller of the two is the agile AMPV1, whose compact dimensions make it an outstanding liaison vehicle; one version can be airlifted in a CH-53 cargo helicopter. The AMPV2 can carry more and is better protected. A patrol version of both vehicles is planned with an unprotected load floor. Conversely, the mission kit carrier version will be equipped with a safety cell that extends all the way back to the rear of the vehicle. Extremely well protected, the vehicle cell is a self-supporting steel armour compartment with a spall liner. Reinforced floor elements and cell structures offer additional protection against mines and IEDs; varying degrees of ballistic protection can be obtained with add-on armour modules.
Its high-performance running gear with single wheel suspension, high clearance, a 3.2-litre diesel engine (with an output of roughly 200 kW), permanent all-wheel drive and differential lock management assure outstanding mobility even in tough terrain. These remarkably compact vehicles consist largely of identical components, greatly facilitating logistics. They also feature broadly uniform operator interfaces, which makes training faster and cheaper. A 1:1 mock-up of the AMPV will be on display at Eurosatory. Serial production of the vehicle is expected to start as early as 2011.
For the first time, Rheinmetall will also being presenting a prototype version of its Protected Vehicle System, the Gefas, developed in cooperation with other well-known German companies.
The centrepiece of this project is the main module. The vehicle's sloping floor and flank surfaces, enclosing a suspended safety cell for the crew, offer superb protection from overpressure and blast waves. Thanks to its modular design, the system's various elements can be readily mixed and matched for various mission requirements, serving as sensor or effector carriers, for example.
In its basic 4×4 configuration, the vehicle consists of the main module, two axel modules and a powerpack module. Its high-performance four-cylinder in-line engine, the MTU 4 R890, has an output 410 kW � perfect for powering the 17.5-ton vehicle, which has a top speed of 80 km/h. Moreover, the Gefas' narrow dimensions (7.83 m long, 2.55 m wide and just 2.40 m high above the fighting compartment) mean that it can be airlifted in a C-130 Hercules or Airbus A 400M.
The tried-and-tested Yak is a highly mobile, 6×6 vehicle consisting of a chassis frame and driver's cab, with 16m� of useable volume. Its interchangeable multipurpose build-on units lend themselves to a multitude of military tasks, ranging from medevac operations to a water cannon platform for the military police; it can also serve as a ground station for unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
For decades, the Fuchs/Fox armoured transport vehicle has been a mainstay of the modern military.
In extremely short order, Rheinmetall has retrofitted the system with a range of anti-mine and IED protection features. The package includes protective elements in the wheel guards and floor of the hull, the glacis and flanks. Mine protection seats decoupled from the floor of the hull and a new storage concept with textile weapon containers and nets for securing equipment further enhance the level of crew protection. The towing apparatus mounted on the vehicle's front is also new.
In March 2008, Rheinmetall delivered the first of 21 retrofitted Fuchs/Fuchs armoured transport vehicles; a further 100 are expected to follow.
Since 2007, Rheinmetall has held a stake in the companies Rheinmetall Chempro GmbH and ADS GmbH � two of Germany's leading makers of passive and active protection systems. The first step is to make a vehicle harder to detect. Special paint protects it from visual detection, while insulation can suppress its thermal and radar signatures. The next level of protection involves the active destruction of incoming projectiles (“hard kill”) or the application of countermeasures (“soft kill”) to neutralize the threat, e.g. by interfering with aiming systems. Finally, add-on elements prevent penetration of the vehicle's armour; if these fail, additional measures inside the fighting compartment enhance the crew's chance of survival.
The new Amap-ADS (“active defence system”) is a revolutionary hard-kill protection system which, instead of using HE rounds to intercept enemy projectiles, employs directed energy to destroy them a mere three metres from the protected vehicle. Other advantages include a reaction time of just 600 microseconds, a multi-hit capability for dealing with multiple incoming projectiles, and low weight (150-500 kg). Preproduction starts in 2008, serial production, next year.
The Amap family of products also includes passive add-on elements, whose optimum combination of various metals, ceramic and composite materials, formed into special shapes, assure a high degree of protection. Amap-B guards against ballistic threats, Amap-M against mines; Amap-I protects vehicles from IEDs. The package can be extended to include Amap-L, a spall liner fitted to the interior of the fighting compartment. Transparent bullet-proof ceramic plates (Amap-T) can be installed in protected vehicles to serve as windows. Finally, the fighting compartment can be redesigned, for example, by installing swinging seats for the crew.
These new developments underscore Rheinmetall's commitment to supplying the world's armed forces with a comprehensive array of modular force protection products � characterized moreover by rapid availability. In these unpredictable times, they enable troops deployed in harm's way to respond to security challenges with extreme flexibility and self-confidence.
