At DSEI, General Dynamics UK has deliberately decided to focus on the future, not on what is already in delivery. The BLACKJAX demonstrator, in its black livery, presents some easily embodied but significant changes and improvements over the baseline vehicle, displayed on the show floor by the British Army itself.

BLACKJAX is equipped with MIPS, the Modular Integrated Protection System, the platform-agnostic, multi-system and multi-supplier "national" solution that the MoD has been assembling over the last few years with Leonardo UK as leading integrator. While MIPS will have an electronic "brain" that will be UK -sovereing and multi-fleet, the sensors and active hard kill interceptors are of Israeli origin. The MIPS sensor blocks combine the Robot ELAWS laser warmers (already found on AJAX and CHALLENGER 3) with the latest IAI "multi-mission, multi-sensor" M3S2 sensor head. This is the TROPHY APS radar and optical detection system, but with a new, more compact and yet more powerful antenna. Thanks to this, the new IAI radar is a true multirole sensor which detects and tracks drones in 90° sector for each flat face. The radar is powerful enough to detect small, hovering quadcopters by their spinning rotor blades and also doubles as a ground-level surveillance sensor. Finally, the MIPS sensor head is completed by the Robot IRON FIST's own electro-optic head, as the MoD has elected to use the IRON FIST as the interceptor (on AFVs short of MBTs, as CHALLENGER 3 is expected to use TROPHY).

(In picture: the MIPS active protection system (a separate UK project that's really meant to be multi-platform), left to right: Laser Warner head, the IAI M3S2 integrated sensor head (shown in detail in the photo below) and finally the IRON FIST own EO sensor head.)

BLACKJAX also employs a tethered drone as an elevated sensor, feeding information directly to the crew.

Another upgrade is the replacement of steel tracks with Composite Rubber Trucks (CRT) by Soucy, which are known and proven to significantly reduce noise and vibration levels as well as fuel consumption with noticeable improvements in range.

An upgrade to the optics and to the gun mounting, lastly, enables the engagement of targets at an elevation of up to 85° (up from 45°) which allows the BLACKJAX to double as a very effective vSHORAD gun platform, especially with the use of appropriate airburst ammunition. CTA International has added a specific airburst round for anti-air use, already adopted by France for the RapidFire 40 mm CTA mounts employed by the Marine Nationale and on order for the Armée de Terre.

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