REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Mar. 30, 2015) -- A deployable, self-contained weapons system was designed to protect deployed Soldiers from direct fire.
The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development & Engineering Center's Weapons Development and Integration Directorate developed the Containerized Weapons System to protect the Warfighter and the military bases and outposts they defend.
"We have to learn how to adapt our current systems in new and creative ways," said John Dillon, WDI Electronics Engineer. "Shrinking Department of Defense budgets demand that more be done with existing systems in order to maximize their life span."
This "weapons system in a box" contains a mast mounted Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station or CROWS that is currently in use on a variety of military vehicles. The standard CROWS comes equipped with a daytime camera and a night camera that can see through the darkness. Equipped with non-lethal weapons it can stop suspicious vehicles at a safe distance. Equipped with standard ammunition, it can deliver a hail of deadly rounds. And when equipped with the Army's Javelin missile, it can defeat threats at a very long range. It has a 360-degree field of fire and can elevate up to 15 feet with slew-to-cue capability.
The CWS can easily be incorporated with other Integrated Surveillance Reconnaissance, assets that detect, assess, and warn the Warfighter of threats to any sized base. A digital interface provided by the Situational Awareness computer communicates with these other sensors to send real-time target data to the weapons and also provide the operator with environmental information to make the container more than an empty shell.
This portable secure container not only protects Soldiers inside the wire, but it is also capable of providing cover troops on patrol. In the past, patrols were either covered by Soldiers in guard towers or snipers, which was effective up to about 400 meters from the outpost. The CWS now covers them for 1,400 meters or more.
"The CWS not only keeps us out of the elements, but it also prevents us from getting attacked from the perimeter," said Staff Sgt. Gary Whenman, A Co., 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 197th Infantry Brigade, Fort Benning, Georgia. "This system is a very big benefit to us because we are able to disengage the enemy before they even see us."
CWS was one of three AMRDEC technologies in use at the recent Army Expeditionary Warfighter Experience at Fort Benning.
Despite its humble beginnings as a shipping container, the CWS has proven that projects can be developed, manufactured, tested and put in the hands of Soldiers faster than ever before.
"I don't think there's any greater feeling than when you hear back from Soldiers in the field about how the systems or projects that you have been working on have saved lives and have enabled them to come home to their families," Dillon said. "It really motivates you to say to yourself, 'How can we do more for them?' They really deserve our best in all we do."
The CWS has been completed and qualified through testing and demonstration and is currently deployed in numerous forward locations under the management of Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, Program Management-Close Combat Weapons Systems. Funding for the CWS project is being provided by the Rapid Equipping Force (REF) in Ft Belvoir, VA.
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The Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment -- to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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