# Project BG7 — Ground Systems Active Defense (GSAD) Advanced Tech

**Program element:** 0603462A — Next Generation Combat Vehicle Advanced Technology  
**Project:** BG7  
**Component:** U.S. Army  
**Appropriation:** 2040 — RDT&E, Army  
**Budget Activity:** 3 — Advanced Technology Development  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603462A/BG7  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603462A

## Summary

Project BG7 — Ground Systems Active Defense (GSAD) Advanced Tech requests $46.3M in FY2027, 39% of the $118.2M requested for program element 0603462A, up 6.5% on FY2026. 11 R-2A activities decompose the request, 2 new this cycle.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 51.2 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 43.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 46.3 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 55.8 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 49.2 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 42.7 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 43.1 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0603462A; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project BG7 buys

This project matures and demonstrates protection and survivability technologies to increase the survivability of ground vehicles and the protection of the Soldiers who depend on them. The tasks will focus on component maturation and demonstration and transfer products for demonstration as holistic (vehicle level) solutions. The project will mature and demonstrate technologies to defeat threats throughout the timeline of a threat engagement; from obscuring a target, to actively defeat a threat and through mitigating its effects after engagement. These technologies include the active employment of smoke, physical and electronic active protection, advanced and adaptive armors, advanced and active blast mitigation systems and adaptive interior protection. This project will be coordinated with Program Element (PE) 0602145A (Next Generation Combat Vehicle Technology) and transitions to PE 0604852A (Suite of Vehicle Protection Systems - EMD). Work in this project is performed by the Ground Vehicle System Center (GVSC) and Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center

## Activities (R-2A) — 11

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collaborative Defense | — | 18.6 | 25.9 | +39% | [a8](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603462A/BG7/a8) |
| Active Protection | — | — | 12.5 | new | — |
| Armor | — | — | 6.5 | new | — |
| Integrated Signature Management | 0.9 | 1.6 | 1.5 | −5% | — |
| Advanced Radar and Soft-Kill (A-RASK) Suite | 6.6 | — | — | — | — |
| Soft-Kill System Development | 12.8 | 16.0 | — | −100% | — |
| Survivability Capability Characterization and Demonstration | 2.5 | — | — | — | — |
| APS Residuals Protection Maturation and Complex Threat Attack Protection (CTAP) | 6.7 | — | — | — | — |
| Controls and Architecture | 2.6 | — | — | — | — |
| Hard Kill Active Protection System (HK APS) Development, Integration, and Demonstration | 19.0 | — | — | — | — |
| Next Generation Adaptive Armor | — | 5.9 | — | −100% | — |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Collaborative Defense

Will further develop integrated collaborative defense system design based on data from previous component-level demonstrations; mature and demonstrate threat and effector sensing and tracking modalities and optimize associated hardware and software; optimize effector and payload hardware for required terminal effects performance…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603462A/BG7/a8

### Active Protection — NEW START

**FY2027 planned work.** Will validate performance of the multi-spectral threats soft-kill design at the system-level through physical testing of the demonstrator. The demonstration will be conducted in a relevant operational environment to include multiple types of threats to ensure performance. Will transition multi-spectral threats soft-kill products.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** This is not a new start. FY 2027 funding increase reflects the consolidation of other ongoing efforts within this project from Soft-Kill System Development.

### Armor — NEW START

**FY2027 planned work.** Will build upon research conducted in PE 0602145A - Advanced Concepts for Active Defense/Advanced Vehicle Survivability. Will define and document system requirements to support integration on ground platforms. Will collaborate with industry partners to identify and assess novel capabilities to enhance platform survivability and occupant protection. Activities include down-selecting candidate technologies, procuring components to address identified threat defeat gaps, and validating component performance. Initial integration designs will be developed, supported by trade studies and integration analysis conducted in coordination with relevant platform stakeholders.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding increase reflects the planned initiation of this effort. Funding will initiate down-selecting of candidate technologies, procuring components to address identified threat defeat gaps, and validating component performance.

### Integrated Signature Management

**FY2027 planned work.** Builds upon FY2026 effort to culminate in the build of system-level demonstrator hardware for the final design. Validate performance of the design at the integrated system-level through physical testing of the demonstrator. Demonstration will be conducted in a relevant operational environment to include multiple types of loading (thermal, structural, etc.) per MIL-STD-810 to ensure sustained performance.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease reflects the natural progression of the technology development as the system completes performance validation and demonstration in FY 2027.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Builds upon FY2025 effort by completing the hardened component designs and finalizing the integrated system-level demonstrator design for developmental critical design review. Will demonstrate and validate performance of the individual signature management technologies at the component-level when subjected to relevant operational environment conditions, to include MIL-STD-810 exposures.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will build upon FY2024 effort under 6221450A/BG6. Will mature selected component integrated signature management technologies transitioned from PE 0602145A/BG6 Advanced Concepts for Active Defense, by validating individual component performance and integrating the technologies into a physical system for preliminary design review. Will optimize system design through system-level modeling and simulation.

### Advanced Radar and Soft-Kill (A-RASK) Suite

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will mature soft-kill countermeasure techniques to defeat laser-guided ATGM threats; Will determine optimized sensor configuration for detection of unknown/unexploited threats; Will improve threat detection algorithms to include additional emerging threat classes and increase accuracy of threat tracking; Will demonstrate representative hardware with enhanced algorithms for detection of unknown/unexploited threats in in relevant environment.

### Soft-Kill System Development

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding decrease reflects realignment to Active Protection within this project.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Will finalize maturation of the soft-kill subsystem design; fabricate and integrate components for subsystem vehicle installation; begin integrating the soft-kill subsystems utilizing the Survivability Framework and Vehicle Protection Systems (VPS) Base Kit (VBK); optimize subsystem and system performance through lab / field evaluation; assess and document subsystem performance.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will begin development and maturation of next increment of soft-kill subsystems to address additional threats; environmentally harden the system, begin upgrading to the latest revision of the Modular Active Protection System Framework; improve optimization of subsystems for space, weight, and power (SWAP) and begin virtual and lab demonstrations to assess subsystem performance and robustness in preparation for system integration.

### Survivability Capability Characterization and Demonstration

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will complete Survivability subsystem/system demonstration, provide documentation and reports for selected survivability subsystems, and transition relevant information to stakeholders.

### APS Residuals Protection Maturation and Complex Threat Attack Protection (CTAP)

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will build upon prior year's work, at the system level for demonstration, to integrate packaged component designs for protection against advanced and emerging threats which employ complex defeat mechanisms. Will mature and optimize designs through integrated system-level environmental and automotive durability testing, followed by ballistic testing, to validate performance against system-level requirements. Will validate compliance with the Modular Active Framework. Will provide capstone demonstrations of capabilities against pacing threat defeat in a relevant environment.

### Controls and Architecture

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will complete laboratory demonstration and transition deliverables to program office. Will document designs for advancements of next phase of active defense technologies.

### Hard Kill Active Protection System (HK APS) Development, Integration, and Demonstration

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Will provide Interface Control Documents at the sub-system level, including those for the Countermeasure, Launcher, Fire Control Solution, and Radar. Will update the system-level Interface Control Document based on sub-system finalization completing the Final Design Review package in order to baseline the system architecture. Will develop radar subsystem components for integration and testing. Will conduct testing-validation and demonstration of Countermeasure sub-system capabilities.

### Next Generation Adaptive Armor

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding reflects the completion of this effort in FY 2026.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Will collaborate with industry partners to identify and assess novel capabilities to enhance formation-level survivability; activities include down-selecting candidate technologies, procuring components to address identified threat defeat gaps, and validating component performance.

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603462A.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Army RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0603462A project BG7 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0603462A")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*