Protection System in Top 50 Inventions

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Protection System in Top 50 Inventions
November 17, 2008
Army News Service|by John R. Guardiano

WASHINGTON - The Army's new Active Protection System, designed to safeguard Soldiers and vehicles from incoming fire, has been named one of the best inventions of 2008 by Time magazine.

"Think of (it) as Star Wars for Soldiers," said Time magazine in its Nov. 10 edition. The APS "will automatically detect an incoming round and then launch a missile to destroy it, all within a split second."

The Army is developing APS as part of its Future Combat Systems ground-force modernization program. FCS is designed to bring Soldiers into the 21st century by equipping them with state-of-the-art vehicles, communication capabilities, sensors and protective systems.

The APS is actually part of a more comprehensive "hit-avoidance system" that the Army is building into a suite of eight new FCS Manned Ground Vehicles types. This more comprehensive hit-avoidance system will give the Soldiers in the MGVs "full-scale 360-degree hemispherical protection," said FCS Program Manager Maj. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright.

Current Army vehicles lack this level of protection because, he said, they were designed more than a generation ago, before the information technology revolution of the past quarter-century.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-news/protection-system-in-top-50-inventions.html