Big cat power
Christopher F Foss
Being shown by the Bin Jabr Group is the MBDA/Rheinmetall Defence Electronics Multi Purpose Turret System (MPTS) integrated on the NIMR (Tiger) (4x4) armoured high mobility tactical vehicle chassis. The consortium is marketing this chassis/ turret combination to potential customers in the Middle East.
In addition to the NIMR 4x4 model, a 6x6 with greater internal volume and payload is also being developed. The NIMR high mobility tactical vehicle is manufactured in various configurations by Advanced Industries of Arabia.
Two versions of the MPTS are currently being marketed on the NIMR chassis, the NIMRAT (NIMR Anti-Tank) and NIMRAD (NIMR Air Defence), with the latter being shown at IDEX on the Bin Jabr stand (OD210/220).
At IDEX this year the NIMRAD air defence version is armed with four (two pods of two) MBDA Mistral 2 fire-and-forget surface-to-air missiles with an additional four missiles being carried internally for manual reloading.
The automated turret has a Rheinmetall Defence Electronics EOSS stabilised day/thermal night sensor pod mounted with integrated laser rangefinder, which is mounted between the two pods of missiles. A 12.7mm machine gun is fitted for local protection.
In addition to carrying out target engagements from within the platform, targets can be engaged using a remote control capability. Development of the MPTS turret is on track and should be completed later this year and culminate in a firing of Mistral 2 SAM.
For the anti-tank/bunker busting role the turret can be fitted with four MBDA Milan 2,000m anti-tank guided weapons or the recently developed Milan Extended Response, which has a maximum range of 3,000m and is fitted with an advanced warhead.
It is expected that users will deploy air defence or anti-tank versions rather than mix weapons on the same platform. The modular design of the system would also enable the roles to be switched at field workshop level very rapidly with minor modifications.
The MPTS has been developed as a private venture by MBDA and Rheinmetall Defence Electronics to meet emerging user requirements for a multirole weapon system, which can be adopted for a range of battlefield missions using a common architecture.
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