when a quadcopter begins to hunt armored vehicles, what is meant to smash it as it gets into the air before it locates the weak points?
Another demonstration video has re-introduced the Iron Fist active protection system (APS) of Israel, demonstrating hits, not only with standard anti-armor threats, but also with small drones. The principle is simple: should a vehicle have time to detect a projectile on its way, it can shoot back at it, and in a short enough duration of time, before it hits it. The target that is changing is the one that changes. An hard-kill APS based on rockets and missiles are now being assigned the role of killing the same type of low cost, fast adaptive unscrewed systems that have made the top-down attack to become a daily tactical reality.
The structure of Iron Fist is designed to be comprised of turreted launchers, each of which typically contains two interceptors, integrated into a sensor package consisting of small AESA radars combined with infrared cameras. After the sensors identify a threat, the system notifies the launcher and launches an interceptor with a high explosive fragmentation impact that is intended to intercept the incoming weapon before it hits the vehicle. The drones in the footage by Elbit are demonstrated to be operated in fairly stable approach profiles, and even tested by rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank guided missiles, and even kinetic-energy penetrators, the high-velocity so-called dart category of tank ammunition with only a few seconds of timing margin.
The next engineering issue is also explained by that drone footage.
It is the drone attacks on armored vehicles that have focused on steep angles and awkward geometries, which make it harder to detect, track, and intercept. The video clips by Iron Fist demonstrate drones arriving in horizontal-ish lines and in a downward line, however, it does not demonstrate how the system deals with near-vertical, straight-down lines. This is the aspect of the threat that is compelling APS makers to pursue elevation coverage, sensor fusion gains and speedier decision loops since top attack reduces reaction time, and may offer a smaller radar/IR signature until late into the engagement.
The further increase in the relevance of Iron Fist is also related to the constant insertion into the large fleets. U.S. Army has been working towards the integration of Iron Fist onto no less than some of its M2A4 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the vehicles having Iron Fist-equipped vehicles renamed M2A4E1. In addition to this vehicle-level hardware, the wider Army survivability drive has bent towards the concept of modularity- making an effort to make the Army painfully standardized in its so-called plug and fight layer of sensors, launchers, and electronic countermeasures. This style is frequently discussed with reference to the Army’s MAPS architecture, which is the Modular Active Protection System (MAPS), which is supposed to allow platforms to have varying defensive combinations as the threats and missions evolve.
Hard-kill interceptors can be characterized as but one leg of that stool. Passive overhead kits, signature management, and the more mundane yet determinant issue of power of feeding sensors, computer, jammers, and where in action directed energy have also been brought to the fore during budget and modernization planning. The same survivability discussions involve attempts to field top-attack add-on protection to many brigade sets, which is defined as a passive add-on protection installed in crew compartments and hatches, connoting the fact that APS can be strained by the angles and dynamics of drone-delivered munitions, alone.
The drone intercepts by Iron Fist are made as well within a broader APS trend line. An upgrade to a Trophy with counter-drone and top-attack capabilities has already been announced by Rafael, and other designers are looking at corresponding expansions to engagement envelopes and threat libraries. Simultaneously, vehicle survivability thinking has been drawn towards ideas of layered defense: identify early, interrupt control links where feasible, allocate defeat to what cannot be spoofed, and minimize the signatures which cause vehicles to become easy to locate in the first place.
The drone skill of Iron Fist is not a single breakthrough point in the sense that it is merely an indication that APS is being pulled upwards, to the drone layer, whether the designers are keen on it or not.
