On 14 October 2024, Pakistan’s Heavy Industries Taxila’s (HIT) Advanced Research Development and Information Center (ARDIC) released a tender calling for lab testing and other equipment for a project to develop an active protection system (APS) for main battle tanks (MBT).
An APS is a defensive suite that helps armoured vehicles, such as MBTs, detect and neutralize incoming threats, such as anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and loitering munitions.
APS suites involve two main subsystems: a sensor to detect incoming objects and a solution to deprecate or destroy the threat. The latter element can involve either ‘soft-kill’ or ‘hard-kill’ measures.
HIT is increasingly becoming adept at sourcing its own subsystems. Its work in this area started with the al-Khalid program via HIT’s solid state auto-loader (SSAL) and battle management system (BMS), among other inputs. With the Haider MBT, HIT’s inputs have grown to include the FCS, GCS, and, potentially, an APS as well as optronics, such as thermal imaging, for example.
While designing original platforms may still be a long-term goal, HIT could see more near-term business by offering original subsystems, especially vital inputs like an APS and FCS. HIT can market subsystems for use on platforms from different places, be it the West, China, Turkey, or Russia. It could also partner or collaborate with smaller platform makers by inserting its subsystems as the default, thus opening up more market opportunities.
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