Qatari land forces display Boxer with counter-UAV capability

A QELF Boxer is seen fitted with a passive radio frequency sensor that enables it to identify the locations of UAVs so they can be engaged with its RCT30 turret. (Janes/Jeremy Binnie)

The Qatar Emiri Land Forces (QELF) stand at the DIMDEX 2024 show held in Doha from 4 to 6 March included a Boxer 8×8 armoured vehicle that has been modified to enable it to shoot down small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

A Qatari general told Janes that his service is in the process of receiving 10 of the specially modified Boxers.

The Boxer was armed with the RCT30 unmanned turret, the standard armament on the German Army's Puma tracked infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), but also fitted with what a representative of the Franco-German company KNDS described as a passive radio frequency sensor. He said that this can identify the locations of common types of commercial drones in the vicinity of the vehicle but did not go into detail about how it works.

This location data is then fed into the RCT30's fire-control system so that the UAVs can be engaged with the turret's 30 mm gun, which can use programmable air-bursting ammunition to make it more effective against aerial targets. A video showed the system successfully shooting down numerous commercial quadcopters during tests.

There is also a back-up target acquisition system where computer software scans the feed from the turret's electro-optical cameras to identify UAVs that may not have been spotted by the vehicle's crew.

For more details of the Boxer, please seeBoxer .