The British Army is considering “areas of interest” for upgrading Boxer survivability. (Crown copyright)
British Army Major Mark Lewis, Senior Officer 2 (SO2) Boxer Futures, outlined “areas of interest” for upgrading the vehicle's survivability on the last day of SAE Media Group's Future Armoured Vehicles Survivability (FAVS) 2024 conference held in London from 11 to 13 November.
Those areas include human-machine interface (HMI), active protection systems (APSs) composite armour, and using uncrewed systems with Boxer. The latter would use Boxer as a mother ship for uncrewed air and ground vehicles, with the possibility of the armoured vehicle also being unmanned. HMI could be used to improve the employment of the Boxer's fire-control system and battle management system, according to Maj Lewis.
He noted that another way to improve Boxer survivability is by increasing its lethality. He said the vehicle's RS4 remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS) could be replaced by the RS6 RCWS and spoke about giving it a counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) capability with the use of airburst and programmable munition and, further in the future, directed energy weapons. Javelin missiles could increase the Boxer's anti-armour capabilities, and the Mounted Close Combat Overwatch (MCCO) variant could increase the Boxer's range to 10 km. Greater range and therefore lethality could also be achieved with the introduction of the Boxer Armoured Mortar, according to Maj Lewis.
He said Boxer mobility could be increased, initially with front-end engineering equipment and then by novel suspension systems and hybrid electric drives.
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