The Scudo Active Defence System (ADS) has been under development since 2002 under the leadership of Oto Melara to meet the requirements of the Italian Army, Land Armament General Directorate, who has partly funded the programme.Scudo has been designed to provide the platform with a high level of protection against anti-tank weapons such as the RPG-7 rocket propelled grenade launcher, Anti-Tank Guided Weapons (ATGW) and lower velocity gun launched projectiles.In mid-2010 the Scudo ADS was shown integrated on the first prototype of the Oto Melara Draco weapon system.This is a remote-controlled turret armed with a 76 mm rapid firing gun that for trials purposes has been integrated on the chassis of the Centauro (8 × 8) armoured car.For this application the Scudo ADS was installed on the right side of the chassis.In mid-2010, according to Oto Melara, all components of the Scudo have been tested and the company is proposing a one-year programme of live tests of the sensor suite which would be connected to a black box to record the system's behaviour.The Scudo would be just one part of enhancing the overall survivability of an Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV). Which would also include enhanced armour, electronic countermeasures, smoke generation and signature reduction.It is understood that as of mid-2011 no decision had been taken as to when production of the Scudo active defence system would commence.

Scudo includes the X-band dual frequency CW detection and tracking sensor, infra-red sensor, management computer, 70 mm fragmentation launcher and a kit of explosive tiles and dedicated optronic trigger sensors. The Italian Ariete MBT, for example would have two roof mounted launchers each with six munitions in the ready to launch position. The incoming threat is first detected by the tracking radar and if confirmed as a threat to the platform one or two of the 70 mm interceptor rockets will be launched into the path of the incoming threat.Each of these has a smart proximity fuze that activates the munitions which showers thousands of tungsten balls into the path of the incoming warhead. This is claimed to have a kill probability of over 90 per cent with targets being engaged at a range of between 30 and 100 m.If the threat is launched at a very short range, for example an RPG-7, this will be engaged by the inner layer which consists of small explosive tiles that also discharge thousands of tungsten balls into the path of the threat. These would have a range of between 6 and 15 m and have a reaction time of 15 ms. Each tile is about 200 × 200 × 100 mm deep and weighs about 15 kg. Its coverage is 360° in azimuth and 23° in elevation.