BAE's Global Combat Systems will unveil the new Armadillo concept of the CV90 Armored Combat Vehicle family at Eurosatory 2010.
Bringing a high level of flexibility in payload and battlefield utility to a new range of vehicles using common CV90 components, the vehicle has won more than 1,000 orders, according to BAE.
BAE has analyzed the degree of commonality between variants in existing CV90 vehicles, and overlaid on this the benefits of a modular approach to future variants based on the Armadillo standard. Based on cost, engineering effort expended and the number of major common components, the company believes it can achieve between 65 and 88% commonality for turreted, personnel carrier and specialist engineering vehicles.
The real payoff for the Armadillo comes in its available payload of 16 metric tons. In its armored personnel carrier form, the CV90 Armadillo will weigh in at 26 metric tons, leaving 9 metric tons of payload availability, which can be traded off against higher levels of protection.
Equipped with a Saab LEDS150 hard-kill self-protection system, a BAE Lemur remote weapon station, and external fire suppression equipment to deal with urban warfare attacks from Molotov cocktails and the like, the Armadillo family will include ambulance, mortar, personnel carrier, command-and-control, logistics support and recovery variants, depending on customer demand.