Saturday, January 18, 2014

Remote Turrets Part I

REMOTE TURRETS

Medium Caliber Turrets (20mm-40mm automatic cannons) are the backbone of the Fire Power of today's Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs). 



An emerging concept in medium caliber turrets is the Remote or Unmanned Turret concept. 



Kongsberg's Remote Turret with 30mm Mk44 Bushmaster


This is different than the Remote Weapon Stations armed with medium caliber guns like the one shown:


The main differences:

i. Remote turrets are enclosed structures with all the subsystems like the ammunition feed chutes, ammo boxes and drives are inside an armored cocoon. On the other hand RWS have an open architecture.

ii.  Remote Turrets offer an important advantage of reloading under armor whereas in most of the RWS's, the crew has to get outside to reload ammunition. 

Unmanned Turrets offer the advantage of having no part that is hanging below the vehicle's roof line ie. the basket of a manned turret.

 Vehicle Interior w/ Unmanned Turret



 


Vehicle Interior w/ 2 Men Turret