www.rhotwang.fora.pl

Rhotwang

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

Unmanned Turrets Spur Market Surge
By ANDREW CHUTER
Published: 21 June 2010

PARIS - Ten years ago, remote weapon stations (RWS) barely figured in the requirements of military vehicle operators. Today, they are a must-have for armies deploying to hot spots around the globe.

The result - an explosion of models, options and suppliers - was on view here at the Eurosatory 2010 exhibition, where there were almost enough RWS sellers to fill a small exhibition hall on their own.

It's not surprising; the cost to enter the bottom end of the market is low and the potential rewards are high, as militaries rush to equip even light armored vehicles and trucks with weapons that can strike insurgents while troops remain out of harm's way.

BAE Systems, Elbit Systems, EOS, FN Herstal, Kongsberg, Nexter, Panhard, Rafael, Rheinmetall, Saab, ST Kinetics and others were offering products in what used to be a niche sector. Systems ranged from light and simple to large and sophisticated and everything in between.

But the field can be roughly split between larger machines, such as six-wheel- and eight-wheel-drive vehicles that can take on heavier payloads, and smaller four-wheel-drive vehicles and trucks, said Saab's Martin St■ lfors, development product manager for the Swedish company's Trackfire system.

St■ lfors said the RWS sector had grown since Eurosatory 2008.

"I would expect in two years' time, we will see even more competition," he said.

Capabilities are changing rapidly, too. St■ lfors said that what was a "high-end system three years ago is now becoming standard."

It's a robust market that means big business for some companies.

In recent years, market leader Kongsberg Protech Systems has sold more than 15,000 of its Protector systems in various configurations and sizes to 17 nations. That includes the United States, where a big CROWS II (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station) deal with the Army a few years back has been game-changing for the Norwegian supplier.

At one end of the product scale, Kongsberg offers a man-portable light RWS - on view for the first time at Eurosatory - which can be removed from a vehicle, mounted on a tripod and fired manually or from within the safety of the cabin of a vehicle.

At the other end of the scale, the company's new medium-caliber remote turret, which sports a 30mm cannon, was sitting atop the 30-ton Piranha 5 armored vehicle unveiled here by General Dynamics European Land Systems.

Rival producers have been going down the same track, introducing RWS with 25mm cannons aimed at light armored machines and infantry fighting vehicles.

Elbit of Israel is looking into a system with a lightweight 25mm cannon developed by U.S. munitions maker ATK, said Momi Ifergan, Elbit's vice president for international land systems.

BAE used Eurosatory to offer a first public viewing of its TRT-25 remote turret, fitted to a new armored vehicle the British company launched at the show.

Other notable trends, according to Walter Qvam, Kongsberg president and chief executive, are declining costs, increasing motorization, improving stabilization and boosting sensor capabilities.

"Without stabilization, you are not going to have a good weapon station," Qvam said.

He also noted another emerging market: paramilitary organizations.

Police forces and others are looking at RWS that offer a combination of nonlethal and lethal effects to provide what they call in the United States "escalation of force."

"We already have systems in the demonstration phase for this sort of application," Qvam said.

St■ lfors said Saab, which sees paramilitary sales as a near-term growth sector, hopes to have a light version of its Trackfire system ready in the next 12 months.

Dual RWS offerings are starting to appear. A number of producers offer two weapons and a sensor package.

Elbit joined this club at Eurosatory, launching a derivative of its RCWS-M station now in production for the Austrian Army. The Israeli company showed a combination of 40mm automatic grenade launcher and 7.62mm machine gun on a stabilized dual-axis system. Other companies have combinations of missiles and machine guns.

One executive at the show said Canada and South Korea were showing interest in such systems. The South Koreans, he said, were looking at a grenade launcher and 12.7mm machine gun.

Sensors are becoming more sophisticated.

Elbit offered a combination of day- and night-vision cameras and a laser rangefinder that can be used in a separate surveillance system.

Rune Werner, Kongsberg's executive vice president for marketing and sales, said one of the trends in sensors is the increasing use of uncooled infrared technology.

"It's much cheaper than cooled technology," he said. "It's developing fast, and we are going to see more of it on RWS."

But there is a performance cost. A cooled infrared sensor might see out to two to five kilometers, while an uncooled one might only work out to one to one-and-a-half kilometers.

Another trend is to marry an RWS with situational awareness and active protection systems. BAE equips its new Armadillo CV90 vehicle derivative with just such an arrangement.

Price is a big factor in taking a slice of business. French small vehicle maker Panhard has pitched 600 of its Wasp remote 7.62mm machine gun turrets to the French Army. Priced at about 50,000 euros ($62,000) per unit, the Wasp has an unstabilized mount and optronic sensors from Sagem for day use.

Panhard was able to cut costs because Sagem quoted prices for the optronic sensor that benefited from the volumes ordered for the French Army's Felin infantry kit program.

An executive with Israeli company Rafael, informed of the Wasp pricing, said Panhard had "broken the market, if that's true." ■

Pierre Tran contributed to this report.

Rhotwang

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 27, 2007 12:09:42 EDT

The Army plans to spend more than $1 billion dollars on a computerized weapons system designed to take turret gunners out of the kill zone.

The $1.4 billion contract the Army awarded to Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace Aug. 21 will buy 6,500 Common Remotely Operated Weapons Stations over the next five years.

Despite numerous improvements to vehicle armor, soldiers are still required to man crew-served weapons in highly vulnerable turrets of Humvees and other armored security vehicles.

Their heads stick up out of the top of the vehicles, exposing them to sniper fire and shrapnel from homemade enemy bombs.

The CROWS allows the soldier to control the turret weapon with a joystick and a computer screen from relative safety inside the vehicle and shoot with near-perfect accuracy.

“It gives the soldier the ability to stay protected in the vehicle and he can still engage the enemy,” said Army Col. Carl Lipsit, project manager for Soldier Weapons.

CROWS has been in the works since the Military Police School first asked for the system in 1999, but it didn’t pick up speed until four were sent to Iraq in December 2003 for a trial run.

Since then, the Army has fielded about 250 of the systems in Iraq.

The Army released a request for proposal Aug. 22, 2006, inviting industry to compete in the CROWS competition.

The winner, Kongsberg, also makes the Remote Weapons Station for the Army’s Stryker vehicles.

“Kongsberg is a proven company,” Lipsit said, adding that the company makes “a proven system as we have seen on the Stryker.”

Kongsberg, based in Norway, is scheduled to start delivering the first 1,300 CROWS systems beginning in February 2008, Lipsit said, describing the initial $300 million deal.

At first, the production schedule is for 30 systems per month, Lipsit said. Over time the production rate is scheduled to increase to 100 per month, he said.

Units can set up CROWS with the M249 squad automatic weapon, M240B machine gun, M2 .50-caliber machine gun or the MK19 automatic grenade launcher.

CROWS also can be used on vehicles such as the M93 Fox Nuclear, Biological-Chemical Reconnaissance System.

The ammo can is designed to be larger than normal, holding 500 rounds of .50-caliber ammo, 96 rounds of 40mm or 2,000 rounds for the 249 and 240. That way, soldiers won’t expose themselves as often to reload.

In addition to increased protection, CROWS offers a stabilized platform that lets soldiers hit targets with precision, on the move, at ranges out to approximately 1,800 meters, Army officials say.

This allows far more accuracy than a gunner trying to fire the weapon manually while being jostled by the moving vehicle.

“This is a bit more stabilized,” Lipsit said. “They can shoot on the move and get more rounds on target.”

Rhotwang

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

Rhotwang

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

Rhotwang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCLhdneR48g&feature=related