The Spanish company ARMMO Defense Technologies and Santa Bárbara Sistemas, the subsidiary in Spain of the U.S. defense giant General Dynamics, have signed a collaboration agreement to enhance the development and integration of advanced technologies in ASCOD armored platforms and in other land systems, "strengthening the industrial and technological capabilities of Spanish defense".
The alliance brings together Santa Bárbara's track record in engineering, production and integration of military vehicles with ARMMO's knowledge in autonomous aerial interception systems and anti-drone solutions (Counter-UAS), with the aim of offering responses adapted to the current and future operational needs of the Armed Forces.
One of the first fruits of this agreement has been presented in the ATLAS 26 exercise, developed in Huelva under the direction of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Command of the Army.
Flight of the autonomous interceptor Bandit-X
Within the framework of these maneuvers, ARMMO and Santa Bárbara have carried out the integration, launch and flight of the autonomous interceptor Bandit-X from the ASCOD HMC tracked armored platform, making clear "new possibilities to incorporate mobile air defense capabilities and protection against unmanned threats in terrestrial military vehicles".
The tests have been carried out before representatives of the Army, the Navy and the Air and Space Force, as well as before high-ranking NATO commanders, among them Admiral General Manuel Teodoro López Calderón, Chief of the Defense Staff (JEMAD), and Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT).
"The demonstration constitutes an advance in the integration of autonomous interception systems on armored platforms and allows exploring new configurations of terrestrial air defense adapted to different operational scenarios", ARMMO has stated in a communiqué. The company details that Bandit-X is a high-speed autonomous aerial interceptor, developed by its defense division for Counter-UAS missions and intended for the neutralization of unmanned aerial threats.
Performance of the Bandit-X system and capabilities of ASCOD HMC
The system reaches speeds above 360 kilometers per hour (km/h) and its technological evolution points to 420 km/h, with an endurance of between 20 and 25 minutes and an estimated operational range of 40 to 50 kilometers, depending on the conditions and the mission profile.
Among its technical features stand out autonomous navigation in environments with degraded or denied GNSS signal, its resistance to electronic interference, autonomous terminal guidance, and the development of collaborative operation concepts.
Bandit-X was validated this year during experimentation activities with NATO participation in Slovakia and has NATO cataloging through NSN number, which facilitates its identification and logistical management within the cataloging system shared by the allied countries. Its integration into ASCOD HMC represents a "new advance in the evolution of the system, by demonstrating its deployment and launch capability from a ground military platform".
ASCOD HMC (Heavy Mission Carrier), designed by Santa Bárbara, is a multipurpose, modular, and scalable armored platform, intended to host different mission systems on a common architecture. This configuration allows the integration of ground air defense (GBAD), artillery, fire support, heavy recovery, logistical support, electronic warfare, medical evacuation, and Counter-UAS protection capabilities, among other functions.
Likewise, the platform incorporates the open digital architecture NEVA, developed in accordance with the NGVA (NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture) standard, which simplifies the integration of new systems, improves interoperability, and facilitates the incorporation of emerging technological capabilities.