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Quick Kill - Active Protection System

In early 2013 the U.S. Army prepared for formal testing to evaluate a system to protect combat vehicles from shoulder-fired and tube-launched Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs).

Raytheon's Quick Kill™ Active Protection System (APS) can intercept and shoot down an extended set number threats, including rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles with surgical accuracy with minimum potential for collateral damage. Quick Kill can provide protection from these threats in many different mission applications, such as combat vehicles, ships or fixed sites.

The Quick Kill system consists of a multi-mission, fire-control radar that detects and tracks incoming threats, combined with hard-kill countermeasures that serve as a hit avoidance system, enabling multi-tracking and multi-engagement of enemy fire for vehicle and squad protection. The system's vertical launch countermeasure is unique in its ability to engage threats fired from any angle or elevation, providing all weather, full 360 degree hemispherical vehicle and crew protection with each countermeasure.

Raytheon's approach to this technological breakthrough is equivalent to firing a weapon around a corner and hitting another weapon, while both speed through the air at hundreds of meters per second - literally in the blink of an eye. Raytheon was the first company to develop and then prove this concept of engagement by successfully intercepting an RPG at close range.

The Quick Kill system consists of a multi-mission, fire-control radar that detects and tracks incoming threats, combined with hard-kill countermeasures that serve as a hit avoidance system, enabling multi-tracking and simultaneous multi-engagement of enemy fire for vehicle and squad protection.

Raytheon's APS is based on the same radar technology deployed to perform sense and warn operations at active Forward Operating Bases and has been extremely successful in providing timely warning against rocket and mortar attacks.

The system's vertical launch countermeasure is unique in its ability to engage threats fired from any angle or elevation, providing all weather, full 360 degree hemispherical vehicle and crew protection with each countermeasure. Quick Kill is a mature and highly advanced system that provides force protection capability that is essential to the future survivability of combat vehicles.

In a test held in December 2012, the Quick Kill APS demonstrated its protective capability by successfully defeating an extended set of threats, including one of the most lethal RPG threats by destroying it in mid-flight. "Raytheon's APS is based on the same radar technology deployed to perform sense and warn operations at active Forward Operating Bases. It has been extremely successful in providing timely warning against rocket and mortar attacks," said Jeff Miller, vice president of Combat and Sensing Systems for Raytheon's Network Centric Systems business. "With Quick Kill," he added, "Raytheon has matured a highly advanced system, offering our forces an unprecedented force protection capability that is essential to the future survivability of combat vehicles. This technology is ready and could begin fielding within a year."