KNDS launches vehicle fire suppression challenge

KNDS has launched the ‘Survivor: Fire Challenge’ to identify technologies that could improve fire-detection and suppression of the armoured vehicles it is supplying to France’s ‘Scorpion’ programme.  

The French Army’s Scorpion programme is a modernisation effort to upgrade its land combat capabilities with new armoured vehicles and establish a single shared battlefield information system. 

The Fire Challenge – launched on 9 June by KNDS – describes a requirement for new systems able to detect and respond to fire-related threats in armoured vehicles. This is intended to move fire suppression systems beyond what the notice calls “economically obsolete” Fluid Modifier 200 - Heptafluoropropane gas-based - systems. 

Companies are invited to apply for the competition via the KNDS InnoHub portal by 17 July. 

The Fire Challenge sits under the Oasis Survivor framework agreement awarded by the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) to KNDS France. 

Survivor is a seven-year contract to discover protection technologies, spanning technology readiness levels one to six to be used for KNDS platforms such as the Griffon, Jaguar, Serval, ‘VBCI’, and Leclerc armoured vehicles. 

Process 

Participation is open to companies able to contribute relevant technical expertise.  

Following the submission phase, KNDS will assess responses under the Oasis Survivor framework to identify technologies that could be matured to enhance survivability on Scorpion-programme vehicles. 

KNDS will then select five applicants to have their solutions undergo ‘adaptation’ between 31 July and 30 November, before a performance evaluation in December. 

Final selection is then planned to take place between 1 February 2027 and 30 April 2027. 

The company that wins the challenge will also work with KNDS France and the DGA to build a demonstrator of its solution into a military vehicle.