Iron Curtain is an Active Protection system (APS) that defeats many of the most challenging armored vehicle threats.
How Iron Curtain Works
(1) A C-band radar detects and tracks an incoming round, alerting the system and switching it from armed-ready to an armed state. (2) At close range, a distributed optical sensor classifies the threat to select aimpoint and determine which countermeasure (CM) to fire. (3) The CM acts straight down, killing the threat with minimal collateral damage to personnel in close proximity.
 Extensive Testing
Iron Curtain has been demonstrated to be effective in field testing on military platforms.
Iron Curtain Attributes
• Reconfigurable to arbitrary perimeters
• Extensible to broad array of threats
• Minimal collateral damage
• Extremely low False Alarm Rate (FAR)
• Low cost compared to other APS
• All solid state and modularized for durability
• Significant built-in test (BITS) capability
• Architecture approved by Joint System Safety Board
The system is low weight, low cost and occupies minimal internal footprint. The countermeasure acts very close to the vehicle resulting in low collateral damage. Using independent sensors – optical and radar – yields a minimal false alarm rate.
Iron Curtain’s ability to classify targets, along with its array of countermeasures, enables it to efficiently address new and emerging threats, usually with nothing more than a software change. With the rapid introduction of new threats this flexibility enables Iron Curtain to be modified in reaction to threat changes and prevents the system from becoming obsolete.
System Integration
Iron Curtain can be configured to protect almost any surface, from just the sides of a vehicle to all-around protection, including top.
Iron Curtain has been tested on an uparmored HMMWV, and is currently being integrated onto the MATV. It successfully completed recent OSD sponsored Live Fire Test & Evaluation (LFT&E). Iron Curtain provides more protection than conventional approaches – such as bar armor – and is easier to integrate. It is affordable and will be fully approved and ready for production by the end of calendar year 2012.
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