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2021-06-06

KONGSBERG Wins Extension of U.S. Army’s CROWS Frame Contract

The U.S. Army recently awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS (KONGSBERG) an extension to the CROWS IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) frame contract. This extension is valued at approximately US$500 million and is contingent upon future demand and annual allocations.

KONGSBERG continues the development of new, advanced versions of remote weapon station systems as well as serial deliveries to the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

With more than 20,000 systems delivered worldwide and 14 years of CROWS experience, KONGSBERG will continue to support the soldiers with new systems, capabilities and features meeting tomorrow’s requirements while maintaining, supporting and keeping up to date a wide range of CROWS variants and support equipment.

Improving Weapon Performance

CROWS is a gunner-operated system that provides the capability to remotely aim and fire the MK19 Grenade Machine Gun (GMG), M2 Machine Gun, M240 Machine Gun, or the M249 Machine Gun from a stationary platform or while on-the-move.

The M153 CROWS consists of weapons cradles, traverse and elevation drives, weapon interface, weapon remote charger, ammunition container and feed system, laser range finder, day/night viewing and sighting unit, joystick, and remote fire control and display unit.

Gunners within a vehicle crew or in a stationary battle position use CROWS to improve their weapon’s performance through enhanced target acquisition, identification, and engagement capabilities while firing remotely. Units equipped with CROWS include Infantry, Artillery, Armour, Cavalry, Engineer, Chemical, and Military Police.

The CROWS target acquisition and engagement capabilities enable units to detect and engage targets at long range while both on the move and stationary relative to non-CROWS equipped units. The CROWS daylight sight provides a 47-degree field of view and its minimum focus distance is two metres.

The CROWS system is also equipped with four-axis targeting and colour day and thermal cameras. The systems can be tailored to meet customer-specific requirements, including key elements like protection level, sensor performance whether operated by a single, or multiple operators.

The CROWS Remote Turret provides highly accurate firepower. It is remotely controlled and operated from a protected position inside the vehicle compartment, enhancing crew safety. The turret can be accessed and reloaded from under armour and the linkless ammunition handling system provides reliability compared to link fed systems.

The remote turrets include a combat proven fire control system based on fielded PROTECTOR weapon systems. The system automatically performs ballistic computations compensating for the lead angle, cant, tilt and vehicle motion, making targeting easier in the most challenging scenarios. The network-based fire control architecture enables wireless operation of the system, relevant for unmanned/robotic vehicles.

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