Technologies in Place – Concept Needs Broader Acceptance
Immediately prior to AUSA 2021, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced its selection by the Israeli MoD as prime contractor and integrator fro further development of the IDF’s future AFV – the CARMEL (see https://monch.com/ausa-2021-israeli-mod-selects-iai-to-develop-carmel-technologies/). Amir Geva, IAI’s Executive VP North America, provided MON with additional insights on the programme’s way forward.
IAI is on cusp of advancing to its internal Phase II activities: development and demonstration of technologies for a multidimensional combat team. US industry participation in this next phase appears to be a work in progress, with Geva noting “We do know all the players and who they are, and they know who we are and relevance.”
As for the specific milestones in the next phase, he observed “It’s not only about specific technologies that we have in place. Everything is there – AI, data fusion, sensors and others. It’s more about the concept. And you have two main challenges in the area of concept. One is how bring the technologies together. You may have two technologies, but you have to merge them in a certain way to provide a new capability – so the merging of those technologies in a certain way should bring a new capability, different from what you have now. Second, these phase parts are doable and can be achieved.” Beyond that, Geva believes all the pieces of the CARMEL technology foundation are in place for the industry team and its MoD customer to mature. “We just have to use it all correctly,” he concluded.
While the US Army is aware of IAI’s progress with CARMEL, no formal tests, demonstrations or evaluations of the weapons platform are currently planned.
Marty Kauchak reporting from Washington, DC for MON