KONGSBERG to develop Army and Marine Corps’ remote capabilities

SAFRAN

14/10/2019 – The US Army has tasked KONGSBERG to finalize and deliver a secure, network based, Multi-User Multi-Station (MUMS) capability under the existing Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) contract, with first fielding going to the US Marine Corps. 

This effort will yield the ability to wirelessly control and fire a variety of crew-served and anti-tank weapons, integrate KONGSBERG’s CORTEX ICS for enhanced situational awareness and conduct advanced target sharing as well as hand-off between weapons stations. MUMS with wireless capabilities will be safety certified by the US Army Test and Evaluation Command in the near future and subsequently be available to all US military platforms through the CROWS program.

Since 2007 KONGSBERG’s business unit, Protech Systems, has been the US Army’s sole provider of the PROTECTOR (CROWS). KONGSBERG and the USG have been working jointly to modernize and further support future emerging lethality requirements for Remote Weapons Station (RWS) technology. 

June of 2019 marked the first time KONGSBERG demonstrated a wireless (fire control) capability by remotely firing a Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) from a PROTECTOR CROWS M153 mounted on a UGV.  The live-fire demonstration – which also included the remote firing of the weapon station’s M2 (.50) machine gun (MG) – was carried out at Redstone Test Center in Alabama. KONGSBERG successfully demonstrated secure transmissions of video and fire-control data including command signals over radio from the weapon station and the missile.

Based on the above-described tasking and legacy, the US Army has selected KONGSBERG to provide the Wireless PROTECTOR CROWS Javelin capability for the operational evaluation of the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) Light program.  In addition, the PROTECTOR Medium Caliber Turret (MCT), delivered on the Stryker Dragoon program, will be the weapon system candidate for the RCV Medium system.

KONGSBERG believes that a common, secure and authorized fire control system is a benefit and an enabler for such programs. 

The key for KONGSBERG is to offer a secure capability for firing weapons from remote platforms.  The demonstrated solution provides a fully wireless capability for both the ground vehicle and the weapon station. The wireless solution is based on our secure network based fire-control system, said Executive Vice President Pål Bratlie.

Archive photo courtesy Kongsberg