INTEGRATED PLATFORM DEMONSTRATOR
Kudos to Jon and Jordan who are both partially correct. Both may collect a cold beer at Bob's BBQ this August.
This beast (IPD as we call it) is indeed an ADATS (Air Defence Anti Tank System) turret mounted on a "shaved down" LAV III. All of our other ADATS are mounted on a M113A3 chassis.
The interesting news here is that this "concept" vehicle is fully functional. The lessons learned with this integration project will be applied to any future air defence projects.
Jon, your cost figures for the ADATS are off-target - don't forget that we also bought 20 GDF 005 twin 35mm Guns, 10 Skyguard fire control units, all related ILS and munitions out of the total $1B. Also keep in mind that once the LLAD Project fielded this great kit, the Russian quit on us! Now that is value for money!
As for you Clive, I resemble that WMO remark...
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RHC
Why is it that when you have the $$, you don't have the time, and when you have the time you don't have the $$?
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