AUSA 2021: Israel selects IAI to develop Carmel AFV concept

Israel's Ministry of Defense (IMOD) has selected Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to lead conceptual and technological development of the Carmel armored fighting vehicle (AFV) concept, and the company is now seeking a US partner to compete for a similar US Army programme.

“At the conclusion of a successful live demonstration of a two-man, closed hatches armored fighting vehicle, IAI was selected by the IMOD to develop the next phase of the Carmel: development and demonstration of technologies for a multidimensional combat team,”the company said in a 10 October statement.

For the Carmel competition – which also included Rafael Advanced Defense System and Elbit Systems – IAI developed a concept whereby a two-person crew operate the AFV in partnership with automatic and autonomous systems that can control the platform's central subsystems – mission planning and management, situational awareness, driving, and lethality.

“These capabilities allow the [crew] to define, supervise, and interfere only when there is a necessity or need, and enables [crew members] to cover a wider area of concern while effectively meeting the challenges faced by the manoeuvring forces,” IAI said.

Carmel is not a vehicle, but a new sort of vehicle operating system designed to unburden crew members so they can focus on specific tasks, while enabling the platform itself to make quick decisions, Amir Geva, IAI's executive vice-president of North America, told Janes during the Association of the United States Army's annual conference in Washington, DC.