Remote Weapons Stations

Written by J.J. Smith

SOTECH 2009 Volume: 7 Issue: 8 (October)

While the figure of a military gunner sitting behind a machine gun mounted atop a vehicle is a searing image, military researchers are working on reducing a gunner’s vulnerability by developing ways to further the effectiveness of remote controlled weapons and thereby removing the gunner from view, said Army officers overseeing the project.

The common remotely operated weapon stations (CROWS) mounted onto vehicles is one of the primary systems in the U.S. The system is worked by the Army’s project manager Crew Served Weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

“Remote weapon station technology really came into its own around 2003,” said Brad Weiss, director of sales for Kongsberg U.S. “Initially remote weapon station technology was focused on mine detection. Once a mine was identified, the .50 caliber machine gun was used to detonate the mine. Users quickly recognized that there other applications that the system could be used for. A full color day camera, a thermal night camera and a laser range finder were some of the first additions to the system. This gave the RWS the capability to actually designate targets out to 2,000 meters.”

CROWS is affixed on a vehicle and can mount one of several weapons, including the M2 .50-caliber machine gun, the M240 medium machine gun, the M249 squad automatic weapon and the MK 19 grenade launcher, said Lieutenant Colonel Michael Ascura, the product manager for Army Crew Served Weapons. It is a stabilized weapons platform controlled from within the protected confines of the vehicle. The system incorporates not only the weapon but advanced video and thermal sensors that enhance
 the operator’s capabilities.

“We view the remote weapons station as a two-fold solution; the first being the protection of the soldier and secondly giving them an enhanced capability to use the system to its fullest,” said Weiss. “Typically, a 0.50 caliber would be used in a defilade engagement when fire is directed generally downrange, with the RWS that scenario now becomes a precision engagement.”

Prior to introduction of a remote weapons station, soldiers sat in the gun turret and manually operated the weapons. Those troops were clearly in plain view and subject to direct and indirect enemy fire, Ascura said. The CROWS system allows those weapons to be fired by remote from inside the vehicle, making it “a system that saves lives by placing the gunner in the safety of the confined
 vehicle out of harm’s way,” he said.

However, while protecting the gunner is important, placing the gunner inside the vehicle has created the CROWS system’s biggest disadvantage, according to Major Michael Pottratz, the assistant product manager for Army Crew Served Weapons. During a conflict situation, a soldier who is in the turret of an armored vehicle can see the faces of those who might be the enemy, he said. If someone who has not yet been fully identified as friend or foe moves close to the vehicle, the gunner in the turret has more options than simply targeting the person; the gunner can raise a hand and signal the person to stop. But with CROWS, there is no one in the turret and therefore no hand signals that tell a person to stop. “That creates a difficult problem, because with the CROWS the only choice is to bring the gun to bear upon a target and fire,” Pottratz said. Therefore, the troops are asking for an intermediate step to be added that will give them another option before having to utilize force, he said. The troops “are requesting an additional step that will help determine if someone is an enemy or a friend,” he added. There are a number of options being developed or considered including having the driver or other crewmembers be responsible for hand signals when necessary. Additionally, the Army is developing the escalation of force kit, which is expected to meet those field requests.

Kongsberg is also addressing the issue by looking at increased capabilities from the remote weapon station itself. Currently there are a couple of technologies that soldier want including a non-lethal ability to interrogate and ascertain intentions of individuals near the vehicle without the use of lethal force. Options include a laser, a bright white light, an acoustic device or some type of kinetic device.

Despite the loss of some situational awareness, the operator of a remote weapons system gains much in terms of what can be detected by the optics and instruments, said John Northcott, consultant for the government and business group of Ibis Tek, which has developed its own brand of remote weapons mounts. The weapons mount is basically a two-axis robotic platform that can move in the elevation and azimuth directions. The obvious benefits of having a stabilized platform for a vehicle weapon mount allows the operator to accurately lay fire on a target, “all from the protection of the armor of whatever vehicle the operator is in,” said Northcott, who added, “That’s significant.” 

Because remote weapons systems are an exciting technology that offer tactical options and survivability levels, several CROWS systems are being developed for many different types of vehicles. CROWS systems are being applied to HMMWVs, Strykers, MRAPs and M1 tanks.

Ibis Tek’s weapons mount has been used in many types of applications, said Northcott, who is also retired from the Army. The mount can be configured with several different sensors and weapons that can be tailored to a particular vehicle. Their weapons mount is controlled by a joystick controller, which directs the movement of the remote platform, engages weapons and configures/uses sensor resources. In addition, the weapons mount has a sensor package that houses a color camera and a thermal camera. The mount has most recently been configured with a non-lethal launcher. The sensor package and non-lethal launcher make the mount useful for surveillance or to deter/engage possible hostile personnel with non-lethal munitions at ranges close to 1,000 meters, he said. It allows for operations in a number of different environments and is designed to carry various types of non-lethal ammunitions.

Ibis Tek has also added a laser range finder into its systems so the operator can obtain an accurate range on a target, Northcott said. There is a microprocessor on most of these systems, and it does a ballistic computation based on the weapon and the ammunition types and can even include in its calculations environmental conditions, he said. That is an improvement over having a gunner fire a couple of bursts to get the rounds to a target. Now the laser and microprocessor combination enables the operator to hit the target on the first burst. The operator goes from a low likelihood of hitting the target on a first burst, to a 60 percent to 70 percent probability of hitting the target,” he said

In addition, the Belgium company FN Herstal offers “remotely operated weapons systems” (ROWS), which, like other remote operated systems, can protect the gunner from snipers, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other anti-personnel threats, according to Jean-François Bertrand. The company is also offering a news system, the “light remotely operated weapon station” (LRWS), which Bertrand says is well-suited to fulfill a wide range of missions, such as self-defense, escort, checkpoint, surveillance
 and observation, and perimeter defense. LRWS’ design considers the military standards for “human factors engineering” such as ease of operation and efficient use of available space, according to Bertrand. In addition, LRWS systems are required to meet military standards for withstanding the most extreme environmental conditions. The LRWS can integrate weapons firing North Atlantic Treaty Organization rounds such as the 5.56 mm (M249) and the 7.62 mm (MK48 or M240).

With the growth in use of remote operated weapons, combat commanders are aware of the risk that troops operating those systems can be tagged as “video game warriors.” The way to avoid that is for units using systems like the CROWS to continually provide training on the remote weapons station, said Ascura. Because today’s soldiers are of a high caliber, the proper training can foster a culture in a unit that never suggests a fire control system is a video game, he said.

With all the reliance on CROWS and ROWS, the question facing military strategists and combat commanders is if there still is a place for the traditional weapons mounts. For now, yes, said Northcott. Remote operators have significant gains in terms of what can be detected by optics and instruments that still can be complemented by someone sitting in the turret of another vehicle. “That gunner has a close understanding of what is going on in the immediate vicinity and the ability to communicate that information throughout the element. With that, Ibis Tek is constantly developing better protection for the gunner and the vehicle that is still exposed,” he said.

However, traditional vehicle weapons mounts need to provide the gunner with an edge, and such an edge can be found in at least one of the accessories to the mount. There are soldiers who say that edge has been found in the HellFighter system, which is a high-intensity light beam for nighttime operations. The HellFighter system is produced by SureFire of Fountain Valley, Calif. It features a shock-isolated ultra high-output HID lamp assembly that generates a blinding 3,000-lumen beam with enough reach to illuminate targets hundreds of yards away and enough surround beam making it effective for night patrols or search-and-rescue operations. Designed to mount on a .50-caliber machine gun—to either the gun’s sleeve or shield—the adaptable HellFighter can also be mounted on an M44 minigun, a vehicle, or be detached and used as a handheld searchlight, said George Syrengelas, SureFire’s product applications manager. The HellFighter can search for enemy personnel or IEDs from hundreds of yards away, he said. In addition, since its introduction, SureFire has been modifying the HellFighter. Initially, the HellFighter only had three mounts, but now there’s more than a dozen different mounts, he said. Nonetheless, it is the Hell-Fighter’s reception by the troops that attests to its usefulness.

Staying ahead of the technology curve is not easy. “Kongsberg has over 80 engineers solely dedicated to remote weapon station technology,” said Weiss. “We are constantly interfacing with SOCOM, TACOM and the end users to determine where the technology gaps are. Once the needs are identified, an operational needs statement is developed and that can result in a requirement and we then work on solutions. So, for example, if they came back and said they needed to be able to see 2,000 meters downrange at night. We would look at integrating a thermal system with increased capabilities.”

“We are always reinvesting from $15 to $20 million each year and each year that internal research and development budget goes up to create new technologies and generations of remote weapon stations,” Weiss continued.

U.S. Army Master Sgt. James Johnson is the assistant force integration staff officer for the Fifth Special Forces Group, headquartered at Fort Campbell, Ky. As the assistant force integration staff officer, Johnson oversees all the new equipment that enters the unit. The Fifth Special Forces Group was deployed to Iraq during 2003 and 2004, when “the fight was on pretty good,” he said. During the early stages of the unit’s deployment, the troops depended on night vision goggles to give them an edge in nighttime engagements. However, electric power had been restored to the urban areas of Iraq, and suddenly the effectiveness of troops’ night vision goggles greatly diminished because of light-bleed over from the street lights, he said.

Driving through an Iraqi city in the middle of the night, the troops found there are “dead spaces” in between buildings, and it was not unusual for a rocket propelled grenade to be launched, as well as other fire, from those dead spaces, Johnson said. Without night vision goggles, there was no way to effectively engage the enemy in those areas, he added. But, that problem was solved by the HellFighter, he said. “We had to figure out something that would get in there, and a very powerful white light that was on the gun line turned out to be the solution,” he said. Johnson added that the HellFighter is a commercially available item, but when the Special Operations Command [SOCOM] program officer saw what it could do, “it has since become a full requirement on the SOCOM side.” ♦

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