At the 2010 Farnborough International Airshow, MBDA will present a tantalising look at ideas that could develop into next-generation support weaponry for the future soldier.

The Concept Visions initiative is a new company-wide drive to develop highly innovative system concepts to shape the future Defence market in key domains for 2030 and beyond.

MBDA's European workforce was challenged to provide ideas for ways in which the company's technologies and future system concepts might improve the capability of the infantry soldier. Following a filtering process, the winning solutions were subjected to an intensive programme of user consultation, experimentation and concept development to bring the ideas together - building a "concept car" approach within the missile market - to provide a tangible, interactive vision of the future.

The resulting Concept Visions outputs present an integrated fire support solution for the dismounted infantry and addresses the challenges they will face when operating in increasingly complex environments with the need to manage precision target identification along with severe constraints to reducing the collateral footprint.

Steve Wadey, Executive Group Director Technical / Managing Director UK, MBDA, said:

"The new Concept Visions process represents another example of MBDA driving innovation in the missile systems market, allowing us to develop a vision of the future for key Defence domains. It highlights the inherent capabilities of MBDA to innovate rapidly and radically, and bring to life the technological dreams of our workforce thereby permitting Customers, Suppliers and Employees to see the evolution of military capability in a different way".

The CVS101 system concept, which is unveiled today, is designed as an infantry fire support weapon system for 2030 and beyond. Its purpose would be to provide a light-weight, long range precision weapon allowing it to deliver a heavy “punch” for use at lower levels within a force structure. It is designed to meet urban challenges with greater freedom to engage opportunity targets and its flexibility, ready availability and responsiveness would deliver precision fire support against a wide range of military and peace keeping roles.

Unlike current weapons, the CVS101 system would be capable of dealing with threats that are intermingled with friendly forces or civilian populations by being able to abide by strict rules of engagement and collateral restraints. This operational edge would be provided via its highly accurate and precise targeting sensors, and aiming capability together with a contemporary, easy to use fire control system that ensures man-in-the-loop decision making at all times.

Importantly, its light weight is designed to help reduce the equipment burden on the dismounted soldier. Uniquely, the CVS101 would be capable of extreme Non-Line Of Sight targeting opportunities in complex urban environments thanks to its net-centric integration capability when used alongside sensors in the tactical information network.

The CVS101 system concept will be unveiled at 10:00 on Monday, 19 July, at a Press Conference at the MBDA Chalet, at the Farnborough International Airshow 2010.

With industrial facilities in four European countries and within the USA, MBDA has an annual turnover of ˆ2.6 billion and an order book of ˆ12 billion. With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile systems.

MBDA is the only group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air). In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.

MBDA is jointly held by BAE SYSTEMS (37,5%), EADS (37,5%) and FINMECCANICA (25%).

MBDA
19.07.2010