Katherine Ziesing | Canberra
Kongsberg has roughly 75 per cent of the global Remote Weapon Station (RWS) market, with a strong focus on what they to call being a ‘lethality exemplar’.
The company has been supplying turrets for the ASLAV vehicle since 2004. A rapid acquisition program saw the company fit their Protector Type M151A1 turrets to the Type 2 ASLAVS, making Australia the second customer for that RWS.
Those turrets have recently completed an obsolescence management program with all 52 turrets now boasting colour screens, new processors, newer control grips and a number of incidental and significant upgrades with a focus on stabilisation. The upgrade also allows the turrets to be networked with one another.
"The full details of the fitout are obviously classified but it is understood that the dual weapons station is able to fire Javelin should the customer desire this."
“All components come from Norway (or the existing supply chain for those weapons stations) but the integration and installation work occurred in its entirety in Bandiana and in Puckapunyal,” Sandy Taylor, Kongsberg’s man on the ground in Australia said to ADM.
A recent win for the new Special Forces vehicles from Supacat under Project Redfin has seen the company perform a world first here in Australia. This is the first time a member of the Protector turret family has been placed on an open top vehicle.
“Among the challenges are some of the specific safety aspects in terms of roll over safety, crash loading and also the smaller issues which don’t normally come into play (in closed vehicles) such as dealing with spent ammunition, link and the like,” Taylor explained to ADM. “These system characteristics were largely dictated by the MOTS design of the RWS. However, it was certainly a factor when we were thinking about how to configure the weapons system for the vehicle.
“Another factor, of course, which never came into play previously was how we treat the part of the weapons station which are normally below armour; that’s just the fire control unit, the control grips. A lot of thought went into the weatherproofing and protection of those elements.”
The full details of the fitout are obviously classified but it is understood that the dual weapons station is able to fire Javelin should the customer desire this.
The elephant in the room when it comes to the future turret business in Australia is Land 400.
While Kongsberg is not exclusively supporting any one particular team, the most likely offering from the Norwegian company is their unmanned Protector MCT-30 turret. The company is working with General Dynamics in the US and Canada at the moment to integrate the system onto the US Marine Corp Stryker vehicles, with trials in the very near future. The MCT-30 is also part of the Canadian LAV 6.0 upgrade program.
The MCT-30 is a turret solution designed for 25-50 mm cannons mounted on wheeled or tracked armoured vehicles. It has a low signature and reduced weight, providing increased mobility and survivability. The MCT-30 RWS can be fitted with co-axial machine gun, blue force tracker, active protection systems and commanders independent RWS.
“We’re happy to support the remote weapons station to any one of the platforms being offered,” Taylor said. “I would say that every single one of the platforms out there likely to be offered has, at some stage, been integrated with a Kongsberg Protector RWS.”
Taylor also confirmed that should the company win a significant role in Land 400 they could transfer up to 60-80 per cent of the value of the turret production to Australia, should the customer/OEM make this a priority. This would also mean working with Thales, the OEM for the thermal imaging camera (the main sensor), a plan already underway for their current contracts and more possibilities on the Hawkei vehicle under Land 121 Phase 4.