The Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMoD) has selected Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) as the prime contractor and integrator for developing the concept and technologies for the Carmel future Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV).
The selection follows the conclusion of a successful live demonstration of a two-man, closed hatches AFV by IAI. The next phase of the Carmel includes the development and demonstration of technologies for a multidimensional combat team, based on an AFV comprising two crew members operating a range of systems alongside integrated autonomous, air, and land platforms, enabling significant improvement in the system maneuverability.
During the Carmel demonstration, IAI’s AFV demonstrated that the vehicle can cope with existing and future challenges on the battlefield.
This AFV solution for the Israeli Defense Forces is based on automatic and autonomous systems that complement the two-man team, and operate the central subsystems – the vehicles’ mission planning and management, situational awareness, driving and lethality.
These capabilities allow the team to define, supervise and interfere only when there is a necessity or need, and enables to cover a wider area of concern while effectively meeting the challenges faced by the maneuvering forces. The system has the ability to locate and destroy time-sensitive targets with small footprints, through quick acquisition and effective engagement of targets.
The Carmel program combines an innovative operational concept with the latest and most advanced state-of-the-art technologies, which provide solutions in the future battlefield based on a small team, and extensive reliance on autonomous capabilities based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), all while minimizing the risk to human lives in a ground campaign, minimizing collateral damage, and streamlining battle management.
“We are very proud that the IMoD and the Land Forces Division selected the Carmel solution presented and developed by IAI. The central principles behind the company’s concept of land combat include intelligence gathering and acquisition of targets in the battlefield, conducted autonomously,” said IAI President and CEO, Boaz Levy.
“The Carmel solution, as demonstrated by IAI, brings to the world of land combat the concept of system of systems championed by IAI, and includes a combination of capabilities, systems, groundbreaking innovation and connection to the world of artificial intelligence as an additional strategic capability the IDF can use in the future battlefield. Carmel will enable complex ground operations with less risk to human lives, which will transform ground combat strategy as we know it today.”
The central technologies IAI is developing for land maneuvering forces include command system, situational awareness system, lethality system, mobility system, and operations system.
