Czech army expands acquisition of dismounted future soldier system

An ACR soldier with part of the ISTAR MBK kit with MyVector imaging unit terminal and an RQ-28A quadcopter UAV. (Pramacom-HT)

After nearly 20 years of development, the Army of the Czech Republic's (ACR's) 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade and other units will be fully equipped with the Modular Combat Set (Modulární Bojový Komplet: MBK) future soldier system by the end of 2025. Developed and being delivered by Czech company Pramacom-HT, the system will enable the ACR to meet NATO requirements for surveillance, target acquisition, and night operations (STANO).

In the last few years, the ACR 601st Special Forces Group and Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) teams were the first to acquire better target acquisition capabilities for dismounted soldiers. In addition to Vector multifunction laser rangefinders, these units also have Moskito handheld target acquisition devices, Nestor portable target acquisition units, and DHY-307 laser target designators, as well as Raven and Wasp hand-launched unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This qualitative shift was capitalised by the ACR in foreign missions from 2002 to 2021, but also in the creation of a modern intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) architecture, with all elements fully exploited in the MBK suite.

The MBK introduced into the ACR has a lethal part consisting of a Bren 2 assault rifle, a 7.62×51 mm Minimi machine gun, a Bren 2 BR precision rifle, or a Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, but also a Surveillance Sensor Reconnaissance Target Acquisition (SSR TA)/ISTAR MBK capability.