It's Alive! (CROWS - common remotely operated weapon stations)

strategypage.com ^ | December 11, 2008 | NA

[neverdem]

The remote control turret changed the battlefield more than you might think.  It all began three years ago, when the U.S. Army realized that new remote control gun turret designs actually worked, and suddenly they could not get enough of them. The army ordered over 9,000 CROWS (common remotely operated weapon stations), but for a while could only get 15 a month. By the end of 2006, there were about a thousand CROWS in service by the end of the year.

The main issue was that the enemy was no longer able to knock out the turret gunner, early in a firefight, and take away a lot of the vehicles firepower. Because of that, once the enemy opens fire, they are in trouble. The remote turret tends to begin delivering accurate fire right away, and is much more immune to enemy fire than a human gunner. If the vehicle is a Stryker, the enemy will soon find themselves dealing with half a dozen or so heavily armed infantry, who get out of the vehicle and come at the ambushers. Iraqis don't like that. They also don't like how some of the CROWS turret equipped vehicles will come after them. All those accurately aimed bullets coming their way, and no enemy soldiers in sight, is demoralizing.

The idea for CROWS has been around for nearly half a century. Years of tinkering, and better technology, eventually made the remote control gun turret effective and dependable. CROWS is a real lifesaver, not to mention anxiety reducer, for troops who drive through bandit country a lot, and have a turret mounted gun (usually in a hummer). The guy manning the turret mounted machine-gun is a target up there, and too often, the bad guys get you. Not with CROWS. The gunner is inside...

[ExSoldier]

Wait, I saw that critter in a Chuck Norris movie! Ummmmmm Code of Silence I think it was. Robot-y kind of thinghie with a human controller standing off to the side during the demo. Old Chuck just puts his revolver sights on the human controller and orders him to "FREEZE!" That did the trick.

[ExSoldier]

When my outfit was testing the FAVs (Fast Attack Vehicles) in the early 1980s, long before special forces or the SEALs ever got them, we were able to remote either an M2HB or an M60 above the vehicle commander/gunner. The trouble was that to take out the gun on a dune buggy, you just had to aim a bit lower because they buggy driver and passenger had nothing to hide behind. Speed is considered "security" and considering they'd do about 120mph, cross country that was enough....went the thinking. We eventually mounted MK 19s and TOW missiles on those things. Tried a 30mm chain gun until we looked at the tires and realized the gun weight had flattened them.....We came up with a great way to transport them: Roll one into the belly of a C141 and then lift the nose so you can put the rear of the next under, keep doing that until the ramp ends. When it's time to offload the first roars off the ramp as the next driver jumps inside his and roars off letting the nose of the next car thump down as a driver leaps inside. It works like dominoes. Looked really cool, too.

[Tribune7]

Just wait until Cyberdyne invents Skynet.

[Blood of Tyrants]

BWAHAHAHA! R. Lee Elf!

[paul51]

If all it takes is one bullet in the right place to disable it, how is that any different than killing the gunner?

The gunner would consider the difference significant

[TXnMA]

"A GENERAL ELECTRIC product ????"

~~~~

As squantos said in #28:

"GE gave up the ghost to Dillon....Blue Press Dillon. He redesigned the mini-gun so it can be cleared easily by the gunner versus the old GAU 2B that had to be taken apart to clear . M134D is standard and the M134DT version is lightweight for aircraft use."

I use Dillon reloading presses; they make good stuff!

[PsyOp]

If all it takes is one bullet in the right place to disable it, how is that any different than killing the gunner?

The wiz-bang gizmo doesn't get sent home in a flag-draped box, for one. Also, those components are much sturdier than a gunner (even with body armor) and can return fire even after being hit, unlike a dead or wounded gunner. Much more difficult to take out that gun with small arms fire than to take out a gunner.