Leopard 3

[Sparkplug]

hahaha... das volgens mij het algehele probleem !

Maar naar mijn weten is die plant Metka in Griekenland nog open en produceert nog onderstellen, volgens mij de leopard 2's voor Qatar en die voor Hongarije zijn/worden daar gemaakt

Wordt daar geproduceerd of geassembleerd? Als het alleen assemblage betreft, dan zijn zij van anderen afhankelijk.

[Harald]

Wie gaat de onderstellen produceren dan?

hahaha... das volgens mij het algehele probleem !

Maar naar mijn weten is die plant Metka in Griekenland nog open en produceert nog onderstellen, volgens mij de leopard 2's voor Qatar en die voor Hongarije zijn/worden daar gemaakt   

[Huzaar1]

Wie gaat de onderstellen produceren dan?

[Harald]

Of durven we het aan om launch customer te worden van de KF51?
Uiteraard naar onze wensen met iron fist aps en alles wat op de CV90 komt. Spike atgm vervangen door hero loitering munitions indien gewenst of gewoon mbt met atmgm?s.

Ik neig naar de KF51, ik zie deze al toch veel meer toekomst gericht kwa uitvoering.
Het nadeel is de beperkte munite voorraad en vooral in combinatie met Hero loitering munitie, misschien beter om dan de 30 te kiezen ipv de 60 variant en een doorontwikkeling van de toren dat deze nog iets groter wordt om toch de 2x 20 stuks munitie te kunnen bergen.

Of NL het aandurft om, als ze nieuwe MBT;s willen aanschaffen, voor de KF51 te kiezen ? dat betwijfel ik omdat de HEER in principe voor de Leo2A7 heeft gekozen. Of er moet nog weer een doorontwikkeling komen, zeg maar A8 met bijvoorbeeld de KF51 toren met 120mm, wel met Hero e.d.

[Parera]

Nou wat dacht je van eerste Nederlandse order van 100 Leopards ?? ...lijkt erop of Rheinmetall er klaar voor is

Of durven we het aan om launch customer te worden van de KF51?
Uiteraard naar onze wensen met iron fist aps en alles wat op de CV90 komt. Spike atgm vervangen door hero loitering munitions indien gewenst of gewoon mbt met atmgm?s.

[Oorlogsvis]

Tank maker Rheinmetall raises sales view, asks Berlin for firm orders

German defence group Rheinmetall on Tuesday raised its sales expectations for 2025 on higher demand for weapons due to the war in Ukraine and called on Berlin to speed up planned big orders and make good on a pledge to boost its armed forces.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/tank-maker-rheinmetall-raises-sales-view-ukraine-war-boosts-demand-2023-01-24/

Nou wat dacht je van eerste Nederlandse order van 100 Leopards ?? ...lijkt erop of Rheinmetall er klaar voor is

[Harald]

Rheinmetall micro-UAVs: a Stinger for the Panther . . . and not only

A lid opens up on the side of the turret and soon a small object leaves the Panther main battle tank (MBT) flying towards the operational area to acquire intelligence over enemy positions. This is something that might happen in a few years, if Rheinmetall?s Panther MBT will enter production, other OEMs involved in armoured considering similar solution.

The integration of such systems is the specialty of Rheinmetall?s Electronic Solutions, which is working with numerous SMEs and start-ups to explore possible solutions to improve situational awareness, and to solve issues such as navigation in GNS-denied environments.

At Eurosatory Electronic Solutions was exhibiting a mission pod that is being developed in cooperation with Berlin-based B?rDrones. The pod was a prototype, the system being still in development, containing a reconnaissance quadcopter capable of 50 minutes flight, and 12 smaller drones known as Stingers, much smaller expendable quadcopters.



The bigger drone was marked ?Prototype 005?, therefore no detailed data are available as the configuration seems to be still far from being frozen. This new quadcopter is capable to land into the mission pod, therefore its approach system must be extremely accurate. Once landed its battery is automatically connected to the loader for recharging. Its mission is to identify opposing forces and if needed to dispatch swarm of smaller drones, the Stingers, to further improve the intelligence picture.



These are launched from the pod thanks to a pneumatic system, can fly for 20-30 minutes and reach a maximum speed of 90 km/h. EDR On-Line understood that beside the miniature optronic package they can also carry a 200 grams warhead. These are expendable, and of course they would be destroyed if they were called to hit a target, however they can also land on an established position and be recovered at a later moment, if this is considered possible from an operational standpoint. The Stingers are the micro-drones currently also installed on the Panther, therefore it is to assume that also there a pneumatic system is used to launch them from the turret.



Rheinmetall?s Electronic Solutions is also considering the GNSS-denied issue, and is cooperating with other partner companies on that subject. The approach which is currently followed is a 3D mapping of the operational area, something relatively simple using drones. This map will then be loaded into all the micro drones, which are all fitted with cameras, Artificial Intelligence algorithms allowing them to locate their exact position by comparing their distance from the ground with the 3D map.

As we can see beside heavy steel Rheinmetall is also looking at all possible solutions to further improve the effectiveness of its armoured vehicles, man-machine teaming being another hot topic at Electronic Solutions.

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/rheinmetall-micro-uavs-a-stinger-for-the-panther-and-not-only

[Harald]

IAV Conference: Rheinmetall details its hybrid armour solution



The Chief of the German Army made it very clear: the future main battle tank weight must be under the 50 tonnes mark. Thinking that the original Leopard 2, the Leopard 2A0 if we number it according to the follow-on variants, was born in the late 1970s at 53 tonnes, the latest A7+ version being over 70, it is clear that some radical changing are needed. Rheinmetall identified the armour package as the MBT subsystem that can bring the greatest benefits in terms of weight reduction if a game-changing solution is adopted, as the protection component accounts for around half of the weight of a modern tank, the required weight saving being 23 tonnes considering the latest Leo 2 version, which means 33% of the whole tank mass and around half the estimated mass of its armour.



Along the years the D?sseldorf-headquartered group acquired a series of companies involved in the defence business, among which IBD Deisenroth which in the late 1990s launched its ADS, for Active Defence System, a solution that aimed at neutralise the major part of the lethality connected with incoming shaped-charge projectiles, tests then extending also to kinetic energy (KE) rounds such as APFSDS (Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarded Sabot). With the acquisition first of a part of the company shares, then of the majority and now 100%, this became ADS GmbH, then Rheinmetall Active Protection GmbH and finally Rheinmetall Protection Systems, RPS in short, in 2019. RPS is part of the Weapons and Ammunition division and is the result of the merging of five different companies active in the passive armour, active protection, and soft kill domains, the new company being therefore able to provide turnkey protection solutions not only to Rheinmetall itself, but to other companies active in the land, naval and in civilian car armouring sectors which represent over 50% of the turnover. RPS has currently a manpower of around 420 personnel, over half of them being development engineers and scientists.

At the International Armoured Vehicles conference, which took place on 23-26 January at Twickenham, London, organised by Defence iQ, EDR On-Line could get more details on Rheinmetall ?hybrid armour?, that was mentioned in early December 2022 at the company Defence Talks in Berlin as the solution adopted on the company Panther/KF51 MBT technology demonstrator.

The ?hybrid? adjective means that the armour module which is fitted onto the platform basic armour contains both the active and the passive elements, the active one being the third generation of the original ADS that is now known as Strike Shield, on which the hybrid armour is based. It therefore includes sensors, a window in the front armour in front of each of them allowing their correct functioning. These include a low power/short-range (around 30 meters) radar and an electro-optic sensor. As the sensors window would partly weaken the overall strength of the structure should residual elements hit the vehicle at this exact spot, here the passive armour is slightly thicker in that position in order to answer STANAG 4569/AEP-55 specifications. It is to note that as the Strike Shield radar sensor operates at short-range, it generates low power emissions that do not increase the tank electromagnetic signature. This allows to keep them always active.

Coming to the countermeasure, this is the energetic element of the package and is hosted inside the armour structure, the rear part of which is made of the passive armour package. This is capable to withstand the residual energy generated by the incoming projectile, following the action of the active element, without being perforated. EDR On-Line understood that an energy absorbing backing might be used in order to avoid any damage on the vehicle basic structure, should the rear part of the module, that is the passive armour, be the subject of a deformation. Although no numbers were provided, the hybrid armour is way lighter compared to a passive/reactive armour solution, the latter being mostly effective against shaped charges rather than against long rods. And this is the solution Rheinmetall is proposing to bring futures MBTs under the 50 tonnes mark as required by the Bundeswehr.

../...

voor het gehele artikel zie onderstaande LINK

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/iav-conference-rheinmetall-details-its-hybrid-armour-solution

[Harald]

Tank maker Rheinmetall raises sales view, asks Berlin for firm orders

German defence group Rheinmetall on Tuesday raised its sales expectations for 2025 on higher demand for weapons due to the war in Ukraine and called on Berlin to speed up planned big orders and make good on a pledge to boost its armed forces.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/tank-maker-rheinmetall-raises-sales-view-ukraine-war-boosts-demand-2023-01-24/

[Harald]

FCAS und MGCS: Deutsch-franz?sische Leuchtturmprojekte sollen vorangetrieben werden

https://esut.de/2023/01/meldungen/39426/fcas-und-mgcs-deutsch-franzoesische-leuchtturmprojekte-sollen-vorangetrieben-werden/

[Harald]

Timeline and Major Phases
Going forward, the MGCS programme is divided into three major phases:
1) TDP: Technology Demonstrator Phase (ongoing, 2020-2024);
2) FSDP: Full System Demonstrator Phase (planned for 2024-2028);
3) Implementation and Pre-Production Phase (2028-2035).
Initial fielding is expected in 2035, with full operational capability (FOC) by 2040.

One thing is certain: if a decision is not made in a timely manner, the MGCS? timeline could slip. Depending on the length of the delay, this could risk significant consequences ranging from cost overruns to a potential capability gap if the initial operational capability (IOC) date is pushed too far to the right.

In het artikel wordt gepraat over deelname, zowel als "partner" en als "observer", en ook over het intergreren van systemen van diverse deelnemende landen. Bijvoorbeeld Noorwegen met Kongsberg, Italie met Leonardo. Dat zijn maar 2 voorbeelden, maar Duitsland en Frankrijk hebben ook nog hun eigen bedrijven/leveranciers.
Het eerste wat bovenkomt is dan het NH90 programma, zoveel wensen, idee?n, uitvoeringen dat er geen sprake meer is van standaardisatie / eenheid in uitvoering.

Dan bekruipt mij ook gelijk de nu al gaande strijd intern tussen Duitsland (Rheinmetall/KMW) en Frankrijk (Nexter) en dat in combinatie met bovenstaande en de tijdlijn.

Eerste inzetbare eenheden in 2035-40, maar dan moet alles goed gaan ...  .... en daar heb ik de nodige zorgen over. Vooral hoe het nu gaat.

Nog een ander punt ; de huidige stand van zaken , nu is het 2023 en de tijdlijn 2040 ... Dat is 17 jaar in die tussentijd verouderen de bestaande systemen. Er zal een tussentijds alternatief naar voren geschoven moeten worden.. een Leopard A8 130mm / KF51 / Leclerc 140mm.
Niet alleen voor Duitsland en Frankrijk, maar ook alle andere landen, (ex) gebruikers van Leopards/ Leclercs, zoals Noorwegen, Denemarken, Canada, Spanje, Italie (?), Nederland (?)
Je merkt nu al door het ontbreken van een goede aanvoer/productielijn dat landen kijken naar alternatieven als de Amerikaanse M1 en Koreaanse K2.

Er is haast geboden en knopen moeten worden doorgehakt en ik krijg het gevoel dat dat niet gedaan gaat worden...         

[Sparkplug]

Alsof ik naar Command & Conquer zit te kijken. Nu nog de Pelican uit Halo voor Air Assault 

[pz]

Main Ground Combat System (MGCS): A Status Report

Sidney E. Dean 23. January 2023

Dit artikel is te groot om hier volledig te plaatsen, maximaal 20.000 tekens. Zie link voor volledig artikel.

https://euro-sd.com/2023/01/articles/29122/main-ground-combat-system-mgcs-a-status-report/

In 2018, France and Germany agreed to jointly develop a successor to their respective main battle tanks (MBTs), the Leclerc and the Leopard 2. Representing next-generation technology, the weapon system ? provisionally designated the ?Main Ground Combat System? (MGCS) ? will constitute a quantum leap in both offensive and defensive capabilities.

The decision to develop MGCS reflects the fact that battlefield threats to even the heaviest main battle tanks (MBTs) are growing. This includes more sophisticated anti-tank weapons, long-range precision artillery, armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) s, loitering munitions with shaped charge warheads, and unarmed reconnaissance UAVs to aid over-the-horizon (OTH) weapons in targeting armoured formations. Conversely, improvements in vehicle armour and defensive systems threaten to erode the effectiveness of today?s front-line MBTs against the MBT fielded by of peer- and near-peer opponents. Next-generation technologies need to be integrated into MBTs in order to continue to dominate the future battlefield. The current Leopard 2 and Leclerc tank families ? while superb weapon systems ? have reached the end of their growth potential, and need to be replaced by new designs.



A Multinational Programme
Following years of operational needs analysis and initial concept development, in June 2018 Berlin and Paris formally agreed to jointly pursue the MGCS programme, with the German government taking the political lead on the project. In October 2019, the two ministers of defence reconfirmed their nations? commitment to MGCS. The decision reflects a recent trend toward a multinational approach to major European armament programmes. This trend has been driven by economies of scale. Next-generation technologies require financial investments and a broad array of expertise and infrastructure which cannot always be mustered in one nation, which to date has put European industry at a significant disadvantage vis-a-vis the competition from the United States. With future vehicles and weapon systems expected to be fully networked, it also makes operational sense for allies who will deploy together to share the same technology.

To ensure harmony ? and satisfy domestic lobbies ? it was agreed that work would be apportioned evenly to industry from both nations. The obvious choice for prime industry partner was KNDS (KMW+Nexter Defence Systems), a holding company founded in 2015 by German arms producer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and the French defence firm Nexter Systems. The two firms are evenly represented on KNDS? board and in management, and bring undisputed expertise into the programme. KMW manufactures the Leopard 2 MBT, while Nexter produces the Leclerc. Going one step further, KNDS and Germany?s Rheinmetall formed a MGCS-focussed joint venture (German: Arbeitsgemeinschaft or ARGE) in December 2019. The ARGE acts as the single contractual party in dealing with the government procurement authorities.

The ARGE?s government counterparts are the procurement agencies of the French armed forces (Direction G?n?rale de l?Armement ? DGA) and of the Bundeswehr?s BAAINBw (Bundesamt f?r Ausr?stung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr; ENG: Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support). The BAAINBw takes the lead as the programme?s joint procurement authority acting in the name of both Germany and France. Within the agency, the BAAINBw?s Combat Directorate is directly responsible for the MGCS programme. Since 2020, the directorate?s branch K5.6 programme office is set up as the MGCS Combined Projects Team (CPT), staffed by personnel of both nations, under the direction of a German officer.



Timeline and Major Phases
Going forward, the MGCS programme is divided into three major phases:
1) TDP: Technology Demonstrator Phase (ongoing, 2020-2024);
2) FSDP: Full System Demonstrator Phase (planned for 2024-2028);
3) Implementation and Pre-Production Phase (2028-2035).
Initial fielding is expected in 2035, with full operational capability (FOC) by 2040.

Technology Demonstrator Phase (TDP)
The ongoing TDP consists of two activities running parallel to one another. Both initiatives are being conducted by binational industry teams formed by the ARGE members, under contracts awarded by the BAAINBw. Work is apportioned equally between the partner nations. In principle, these efforts remain open to participation by new industry partners from other NATO or EU nations.

The first element of the TDP is focussed on researching and evaluating key technologies and components for their suitability for MGCS. These include propulsion systems, passive and active protection systems, weapons (including future weapons technologies), sensors, and vetronics. Each of these technologies is being investigated separately at this time.
Simultaneously, other teams are pursuing a multi-part System Architecture Definition Study (SADS). As summarized by Nexter, SADS Part 1 (May 2020 ? March 2022) assessed such aspects as: technical feasibility within the projected timeframe allotted for the programme; ability to fulfil the operational needs of both armies; efficiency and compatibility with national networked command and control systems (SCORPION for France and Digitisation of Land-Based Operations (D-LBO) for Germany). The follow-on architecture studies are currently evaluating the operational utility of various comprehensive platform concepts using digital simulation scenarios of varying intensity. SADS is expected to wrap up in late-2023 and lead to a definitive proposal for the common multi-platform architecture.

Full System Demonstrator Phase (FSDP)
During the FSDP, the most promising system architecture concepts will inform the design and production of one or more full system demonstrators. These will integrate the individual technologies which were determined to be most promising during preceding studies, and evaluate their performance within the operational system. By the end of the FSDP, the complete MGCS design is intended to achieve technological maturity.
In April 2022 KNDS co-director Frank Haun, formerly CEO of KMW, expressed support for opening the FSDP for new partners: ?Once we complete the system architecture studies, we could add more partners,? Haun told the magazine Wirtschaftswoche. He explicitly cited Italy, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom as welcome additions to the programme. ?All of them have technology to offer [?] to an army to be equipped, like Kongsberg from Norway or Leonardo from Italy,? Haun said.

[Harald]

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/improved-firepower-not-only-a-matter-of-calibre

Improved firepower, not only a matter of calibre

?The firepower is the right to exist of an MBT, and in our view the main gun will remain the dominant effector for a tank,? Dr. Tobias Schmidt, Rheinmetall?s Future Gun System (FGS) programme director states, opening his remarks on the Panther/KF51 lethality.

Main targets for an MBT are obviously enemy heavy armour and other combat vehicles, as well as anti-tank guided missile teams and dismounted infantry. A tank can however be also called to destroy infrastructures, while defending itself from threats coming from the third dimension, namely combat helicopters and nowadays loitering munitions and UAVs.

The big caliber gun will mainly be used against enemy armour, with different types of ammunition such as kinetic energy (KE) and multi-purpose high-explosive (MPHE), the latter also used against helicopter and infrastructures, while secondary weapons are mainly used against infantry targets at closer range, or against drones. ?An tank MHPE can generate more fragments than a burst of 35 mm AHEAD rounds,? Dr. Schmidt adds.

More on the 130 mm main gun

The Panther is fitted with the 130 mm main gun developed by Rheinmetall from 2015 on. EDR On-Line already dealt with this subject in past articles but some new information was revealed in Berlin. ?To defeat enemy main battle tanks, which is the principal task of the main gun, a greater range is needed as well as a high hit accuracy, we are talking of distanced greater than 3,500 meters, and we also need high effectiveness in order to neutralise the target for the rest of the battle,? Dr. Schmidt underlines. According to figures provided, high effectiveness means the ability to defeat a rolled homogeneous armour equivalent in excess of 1,000 mm thickness, protection being of course nowadays provided by a combination of passive, reactive and active armour. Dr. Schmidt advocates the supremacy of the tank gun in MBT duels as he considers that the protection gap against dive and top attack effectors, such as antitank missiles and loitering munitions, will be closed pretty soon by new forms of active protection systems, leaving kinetic energy still the best way to neutralise an MBT opponent.

.../....

( voor het gehele artikel,  zie link )

[Harald]

Sharing situational awareness and operational picture



Mobility, protection and firepower are definitely not enough to make a good tank, sensors of various kinds coupled to computers able to distribute all data to the right subsystem or the right crew member are crucial to carry out the mission. Not only the commander and gunner need to see at long range potential targets, they also have to survey what is going on at much closer range all around the platform, while to accurately fire the main gun a series of data must be fed into the firing computer.



Rheinmetall Electronics is the company branch that is in charge of all Panther/KF51 vetronics, ?On new MBT we installed the first digital see-through-armour system that allows to see day and night through the vehicle thanks to a fused sight, which also allows decamouflaging,? Christoph Meyer, Head of Sales and Mission Systems, Dimension Land, Integrated Electronic Systems, explains. The 360? situational awareness system is based on modules of which thousands are under contract while many are already in service on different platforms, such as German Pumas, Australian Boxers and Hungarian Lynx. Six of those modules are installed around the turret, front, mid and rear on both sides to cover 360?, providing any crew member with the required images duly processed by the video processing unit located at the back of the turret crew compartment. ?We also have an app based on Artificial Intelligence capable to detect enemy activities, the open architecture of the system allowing us to implement new functions developed by third parties,? Christoph Meyer adds. As seeing around is not enough, acoustic gunshot location sensors and laser warning systems are also integrated on the turret, allowing enemy fire detection as well as laser rangefinding or illuminating activities. After having been treated by specific computers, all information are fused into the central computer and made available to the whole crew ?using a very easy human-machine interface, trying not to overload the ability of the single crew member,? Mr. Meyer states. He also adds that radars should be added in order to provide drone detection; EDR On-Line understood that flat panel AESA antennas might well be installed around the turret to provide full hemispherical coverage, complementing the visual 360? system in locating incoming drones and to share information among the unit. EDR On-Line understood that muzzle flash detectors are also sensors that might be integrated to further increase warning.



All sensors that have an influence on shooting, meteorological, navigation data allowing to provide exact location to take in count the Coriolis effect, and so on are processed in the fire control computer located front-left in the turret, which is connected to the gunner and commander sights both installed on the right side of the turret. EDR On-Line understood that Rheinmetall installed a new fixed digital bi-ocular sight for the gunner, while a new commander sight is currently under testing at WTD 81, with a dual thermal channel that includes both a MWIR and a SWIR sensor, the latter considerably improving visibility in fog. Coming to navigation, the Panther/KF51 is obviously fitted with GNSS systems but is also able to operate in GNSS-denied areas. EDR On-Line understood that Rheinmetall is developing an image-based system that can exploit images provided by cameras comparing with digitised maps data, to provide an accurate fix that updates the inertial navigation system, should satellites signals be jammed or spoofed. ?In our fire control computer we run a series of software that minimise the sensor-to-shooter time gap. Usually both the gunner and the commander have to continuously observe the battlefield area, one looking for enemies identifying them, while the second is fighting them, working either in the killer-killer or hunter-killer modes. In the Panther we added pixel-changing software that allows detecting enemies exploiting AI algorithms, putting on the enemy icon a tracker symbol,? Christoph Meyer explains. In the past, pixel-changing algorithms were working only when the platform was static, but now computing power and AI algorithms allow detect changing even with the tank on the move, albeit at reduced speed, EDR On-Line understanding that the aforementioned system works up to around 20 km/h.

All information gathered at platform level are fed into the Battle Management System, which also have inputs from higher echelon as well as from other platforms. All this is of course supported by a complete communication suite, based on digital radios and optimised antennas, the latter not only for connecting manned platforms but also for monitoring UGVs and UAVs activities as well as for keeping a data link with loitering munitions. Rheinmetall Electronics is capable to provide the customer with the right information taken from the BMS and fed into the mission system, providing them to the crew. Here too algorithms are used to lower as much as possible the crew workload. R&D activities are ongoing in Germany in order to improve ergonomics, providing data in the best possible way through the HMI, while a lot of experience is being gained with the various export programmes that involve the company.



Loitering munitions are multiple fold; they are a threat, therefore they are dealt with in the survivability article, they are also effectors, hence they are part of the lethality package, and in the latter case they must be integrated, therefore they are also part of this article as they must be integrated in the tank electronic environment. ?Our Advanced Mission Pod has a standard interface allowing the use of loitering munitions as well as UAVs, and has the same size of the antitank missiles pod used on our Lance turret,? Christoph Meyer explains. It should also equip the German Army Schwerer Waffentr?ger Inanterie, the Heavy Infantry Weapon Carrier based on the Boxer 8?8 fitted with a 30 mm turret also equipped with Spike missiles.

Some spare volume at the back of the turret can also allow embarking short range UAVs. This might be a different installation from that seen on Prototype 1 at Eurosatory, where those small VTOL UAVs were located on the turret side. These will be fully integrated, therefore their images will be seen on the crew station screens. ?A menu will allow to plan the mission, to launch UAVs and to controlled, the software being embedded into the on-board computer system,? Christoph Meyer says.

Coming to the UAVs business, Rheinmetall underlines that it is looking at very specific applications, and especially at vehicle integration while it is not aiming at entering the infantry UAS market. At Eurosatory it was possible to see the Panther fitted with some small quadcopters, known as Stinger, hosted in the outer part of the turret. In the company booth a MissionPod was exhibited that hosted such UAS, and it was compatible with the missiles pod of the Rheinmetall?s Lance turret. Beside Stingers the pod also hosted a bigger reconnaissance quadcopter. While the Stingers are expendable, launched thanks to a pneumatic system, the bigger drone was designed to be re-used, being capable to land in the pod when back from its mission and reload its batteries, which ensure a 50 minutes autonomy. As for the Stingers, information obtained in Paris called for a 20-30 minutes flight time, a 90 km/h maximum speed and a 200 grams payload, possibly a small warhead. Both airframes were developed in cooperation with Berlin-based B?rDrones, showing the intense work done by Rheinmetall with MSEs.



In Berlin Rheinmetall confirmed that these UAS will definitely be transformed into a light loitering munition, in cooperation with UVision of Israel, the German group having inked an agreement with that company, and the product will be known as HERO-R. EDR On-Line understood that the Hero-R Loitering Munition will be available in different configurations and in different sizes. For one of the versions, the Hero-30 warhead will be used; this has a weight of 500 grams, and will therefore require a bigger UAS compared to the proof of concept demonstrator seen in Paris.

The UAS MissionPod displayed at Eurosatory 2022 was developed according to requirements for the integration into the Rheinmetall Lance turret. From the onset it was designed to be modular and be able to host different UASs, in different numbers depending on their size. The technology for integration those UAS will be used for other vehicles, such as the KF51 Panther, but as the available space for integration is different in each vehicle, also the MissionPod will look different. Thus the exact number of UAS to be integrated into each vehicle type will depend on the available space and the choice of reconnaissance UAS versus Loitering Munition. A prototype is being developed that will allow take-off and landing of the recce UAS, main issues being the small surface for landing and the fact that the platform might not be horizontal. A demonstration of the reconnaissance drone launch and recovery capacity is planned in late 2023.

All sensors, command and control, communications, etc, are interconnected thanks to a fully digital NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture. ?When we say that the Panther has a real open digital architecture this is not the same message we were giving ten years ago, because we spent time working on interfaces, hardware, software and electronic, and it is closer to plug-and-play than everything existing at the moment,? Dr. Alexander Kuhrt, Vice President Next Generation Main Battle Tanks at Rheinmetall Landsysteme, said adding that this would allow fairly straightforward in-service support as well as upgrades explaining that the areas where more innovation cycles are expected have been identified, the design team concentrating its efforts on those areas in order to avoid the need to redesign them in the future. ?The NVGA is also a key enabler for AI-based automation and the optimisation of task management, as well for safety and security, ensuring the physical separation of data and safety signals, providing a cyber security certification option, which is very much customer-dependent,? Dr. Kuhrt said, this also allowing integrated HUMS status monitoring and test system, as well as on-board analysis, enabling fleet management and predictive maintenance.

Rheinmetall unveiled that at its Bremen facility some early development programmes are ongoing that might be integrated on the Panther as soon as ready. Those algorithms are mostly aimed at reducing the crew workload. Although not clearly stated, some of those might well be related to the use of ?wingman? UGVs and UAVs, an air defence UGV sketch being visible in one of the slides, connected to the MBT via the combat cloud; this was however defined as ?concept design?, something that is not (yet?) in the company portfolio, reconnaissance, mine breaching, flank protection, and NLOS support being among the other missions that might migrate from manned to unmanned platforms. Controlling or monitoring those potential robotic assets would be one of the possible tasks of the fourth crew member, located front right, who might also be a company commander in charge of coordinating the mission not being engaged in the tank handling. On that Rheinmetall stated that, ?Discussions are ongoing with different armies to find out how this extra-position fits into their concepts of operation.?

https://www.edrmagazine.eu/sharing-situational-awareness-and-operational-picture