Thales has signed a contract with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann for the delivery of 4 PAAG to the German Army to equip the BOXER armoured vehicle. The Stabilized Panoramic Above Armour Gimbal (PAAG), built in Thales premises in Glasgow, UK, is an electronic surveillance system that is remotely controlled from inside the BOXER and gives users a stabilized long-range ‘Detection, Recognition, Identification’ (DRI) and weapon aiming ability on the move during daylight and night conditions.
The system with thermal imaging device and high-resolution daylight color camera enables targets to be identified in the range of up to four kilometres, depending on their size. In continuous operation, the entire hemisphere around the vehicle can be covered. A laser rangefinder offers measuring distances of up to ten kilometres. It can also be raised above the vehicle roof to allow the monitoring of targets from behind a ridgeline without putting the user in a direct line of sight, which greatly reduces operational risk.
“We are delighted that the German Armed Forces and our long-standing partner Krauss-Maffei Wegmann have chosen most advanced optronics from Thales for its BOXER JFST. This means that the German Armed Forces are now one of the 50 armies worldwide that rely on our trusted solutions for their vehicle optronic.” Oliver Dörre, CEO and Country Director Thales in Germany said.
An Automatic Video Tracking (AVT) and Assisted Target Detection (ATD) is also included in the Joint Fire Support Team (JFST) Panoramic Above Armour Gimbal (PAAG) system. Combined with an artillery command and control system PAAG will contribute significantly to the capability being fielded. The BOXER Programme, managed by the European armament’s agency OCCAr, provides the German, Netherland, Lithuanian and the United Kingdom Armies, with a new generation of all terrain armoured utility vehicles on the basis of balanced capabilities of transport capacity, mobility, protection, survivability, growth potential and efficient life cycle costs.
The JFST programme in Germany will see the delivery of two prototype JFST-heavy vehicles based on the BOXER 8×8 Armoured Vehicle coupled with a new JFST Mission Module integrating Thales PAAG. The BOXER is an 8×8 all-terrain heavily armoured utility vehicle with a unique modular concept of a common drive module and an exchangeable mission module, making it a flexible military vehicle, thus ensuring maximum strategic and tactical mobility in a wide range of operational scenarios.
The Boxer is a multirole armoured fighting vehicle designed by an international consortium to accomplish a number of operations through the use of installable mission modules. The governments participating in the Boxer program have changed as the program has developed. The Boxer vehicle is produced by the ARTEC GmbH (armoured vehicle technology) industrial group, and the programme is being managed by OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation). ARTEC GmbH is based in Munich; its parent companies are Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH and Rheinmetall Military Vehicles GmbH on the German side, and Rheinmetall Defence Nederland B.V. for the Netherlands.
