IED blast

The US Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with TenCate Advanced Armor USA for evaluation of the company’s active blast countermeasure system (ABDS).

As part of the multi-year agreement, REDCOM will validate ADBS’s ability to protect combat and tactical ground vehicle crews from the devastating effects of insurgent mines, roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

TenCate Advanced Armor USAs president, Mark Edwards, said the army has a clear vision on the protection of mounted troops.

”We are committed to this world-class soldier survivability programme and determined to meet or exceed every mil-spec requirement necessary to quickly, yet safely, provide this threat protection solution to our troops,” Edwards said.

Specifically, the agreement will utilise the vast capabilities and expertise of RDECOM’s various engineering centres with an integrated approach to testing and developing the system’s features, to streamline its technology readiness level (TRL) certification for future use on military platforms.

"ABDS is designed to save soldiers’ lives and eliminate destructive physical injuries by minimising the transfer of blast energy to troops in the battlefield."

Claimed to be the world’s first practical active underbody blast threat protection system, ABDS is designed to save soldiers’ lives and eliminate destructive physical injuries by minimising the transfer of blast energy to troops in the battlefield.

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Retrofitted to a range of light, medium and heavy platforms, the system can efficiently manage the launch acceleration of the vehicle, its flight and the ensuing fallback to earth.

Uniquely scalable to adapt to emerging threats, the system offers weight, space and cost efficiency when compared to other existing blast protection systems, and has also demonstrated measurable enhancements in occupant survivability during third party tests.

The tests confirmed that the decreased energy absorption, lower vehicle jump height and modest fallback ensued by the system can reduce injuries, shorten recovery times and also improve mission effectiveness.


Image: TenCate ABDS protects ground vehicle crews from devastating effects of insurgent mines, roadside bombs and IEDs. Photo: copyright of Koninklijke TenCate.

Defence Technology