The present invention can be generally described as a protection system. This protection system is formed by the integration of commonly available subsystems, which may be controlled by non-proprietary, open architecture software, which, in turn, may accommodate the commonly known "plug and play" capability. This allows the present invention to easily incorporate a variety of lethal (or less-than-lethal) weapon payloads as well as a variety of sensors and detectors; thereby providing the user with the first real, integrated system (of systems) solution capable of providing an enhanced situational awareness capability.