Vehicle Protection Suite
Current ground combat vehicle platforms and tactical wheeled vehicles lack the ability to effectively detect, track, divert, disrupt, neutralize, or destroy incoming direct or indirect fired threat munitions. Current solutions to defeat these threats, Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) and Slat armor, do not provide preemptive or active protection and impose secondary blast hazards to crew, dismounted soldiers, and adjacent vehicles and equipment. The Suite of Vehicle Protection Systems will develop, mature and integrate solutions onto multiple ground combat vehicles and tactical vehicles to increase the protection of the Army's ground systems from both current and next generation direct or indirect fired threat munitions. The Vehicle Protection Suite (VPS) Project (FE8) will design, mature, integrate, update, evaluate and field combinations of active, reactive, and passive protection capabilities. VPS will leverage both Horizontal Technology Integration (HTI) principles and the Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA) with the Army's Vehicle Protection System Base Kit (VBK) and VPS Intelligent Protection Engagement Response Software (VIPERS) to develop tailored Survivability Sets specific to platforms. VPS Survivability Sets will mitigate existing protection gaps and allow for rapid future technology insertion that mitigates and defeats evolving threats while minimizing the impact to current capabilities hosted on Army ground combat and tactical vehicles. The protection capabilities will leverage technologies across a spectrum of survivability mechanisms including detection avoidance, threat detection, threat intercept, and threat mitigation. The total cost of the Soft Kill Active Protection System (APS) Middle Tier of Acquisition effort is $134.28 million RDT&E from FY25 to FY28, which is a subset of the Project FE8 Vehicle Protection Suite funding.
Continue Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) software development to support Laser Warning Receiver (LWR) integration, testing, and fielding efforts for ground combat vehicles, and enable future hard kill and soft kill Active Protection Systems (APS) integration with VIPERS and the Vehicle Protection System Base Kit (VBK). Complete…
Read the FY2027 plan →Continue Soft Kill Active Protection Systems B Kit Maturation activities to include completion of Critical Design Review, delivery of prototype hardware, Prototype System Demo and award platform integration contract. Continue passive and reactive armor tile engineering development, testing, Technical Data Package and logistic product…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work Funding is required for program management support for VPS programs to include VPS Base Kit with Laser Warning Receiver, Survivability Improvements (Reactive Armor Tiles, Signature Management, VPS Top Attack Protection, Soft Kill Active Protection System) and associated platform integration, vehicle testing, and logistic product development.
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY2026 and FY2027 increase due to revised labor costs.
FY2026 plans — current year Funding is required for program management support for VPS programs to include VPS Base Kit with Laser Warning Receiver, Survivability Improvements (Reactive Armor Tiles, Signature Management, VPS Top Attack Protection, Soft Kill Active Protection System) and associated platform integration, vehicle testing, and logistic product development.
FY2025 accomplishments Funding is required for program management support for VPS programs to include VPS Base Kit with Laser Warning Receiver, Survivability Improvements (Reactive Armor Tiles, Signature Management, VPS Top Attack Protection, Soft Kill Active Protection System) and associated platform integration, vehicle testing, and logistic product development.