Kongsberg medium caliber turret
The Kongsberg Medium Caliber Turret is a remotely controlled gun turret, capable of mounting an autocannon, from Swedish arms manufacturer Kongsberg.[1]
One 30mm cannon it is designed to mount is a lineal descendant of the very widely used 25mm Bushmaster used in the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.[1] The new cannon has the advantage that it is capable of firing new advanced ammunition the older cannon was not designed to fire. In particular, it can fire programmable air-burst ammunition, where the gunner can instruct the cannon's fire control system to program the shell to explode at a particular distance. This is useful when (1) firing at small unmanned aerial vehicles; or (2) firing at enemies hiding behind cover.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, can move rapidly, and are hard to get a direct hit.[1] But a shell that explodes nearby can bring down a small UAV with shrapnel fragments. When firing at enemies hiding behind cover, the gunner gets the fire control system to measure the exact distance to the cover, and then adjusts aim to slightly above or beside the cover. The shell explodes just past the cover, and the enemies may be incapacitated or killed by shrapnel, even when the wall or other barrier could not be pierced by the cannon's ammunition.
In November, 2024, the United States Navy signed a contract with Kongsberg to build turrets for the United States Marine Corps new Amphibious Combat Vehicles.[2]
The turrets will be equipped with a fire control system designed to share battlefield information over a network with nearby vehicles and other friendly forces, in real time.[3] It has been envisioned that the turret could be operated remotely, over the network.[4]
The turret will have a pair of magazines for the 30mm autocannon, so the gunner can choose between two kinds of ammunition.[4] The magazines can be reloaded from within the vehicle's armored cab, and can hold 75 rounds. The turret will also have a co-axial 7.62 mm machine gun, and its 200 round magazine can also be reloaded from within the vehicle's armored cab.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 How America’s Quietly Building a Secret Armored Fleet. Task and Purpose. January 2025. Retrieved 2025-02-26 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "Pentagon Orders $329M Turret System". American Machinist. 2024-11-06. Archived from the original on 2024-12-05. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
- ↑
Christine Casimiro (2024-11-07). "Kongsberg to Provide Turrets for US Marine Amphibious Combat Vehicles". The Defense Post. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
These turrets also include a network-based fire control architecture, which can be wirelessly operated when integrated with an unmanned vehicle.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1
"Kongsberg Remote Weapon Systems: Protector RT20" (PDF). Kongsberg. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
The systems have under armor reload of both the main gun and coaxial gun and the turret cover can be tailored to meet customer specific protection levels. The cover can also be delivered with an add-on interface that enables easy upgrade to higher protection levels.