Leonardo, Thales integrating missile-protection systems in Britain

The continued work is being commissioned by Britain's Defense Science and Technology Laboratory and will lead to evaluation of the resultant system during trials next year, Leonardo said in a news release Wednesday.

The companies are currently working to marry Thales's 'Elix-IR' threat-warning system with Leonardo's 'Miysis' directed infrared counter-measure system.

The end-to-end protection system would be deployed to protect military and civil platforms, from small helicopters to large troop transports, against missiles, including shoulder-fired ones.

Under the contracts being issued, funding from the U.K. Ministry of Defense's laboratory will support lab-based and field trials of the integrated system in early 2018 and help evaluate its use for current and future U.K. air platform protection.

The result will be a highly capable, cost-effective and proven U.K. system that can automatically detect and defeat incoming missile threats to aircraft.

Elix-IR and Miysis are designed and manufactured in Britain. Thales and Leonardo will continue to market their systems individually but will also market the integrated protection capability.