Kongsberg tasked with MUMS work

Kongsberg will finalise and deliver a secure, network based, Multi-User Multi-Station (MUMS) capability for the US Army and US Marine Corps (USMC), the company announced on 14 October.

The work will be carried out under the company’s existing Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) contract, with first fielding going to the USMC.

The effort will introduce the ability for users to wirelessly control and fire a variety of crew-served and anti-tank weapons, as well as integrate Kongsberg’s CORTEX ICS for enhanced situational awareness. Users will be able to conduct advanced target sharing and hand-off between weapons stations.  

MUMS with wireless capabilities will be certified by the US Army Test and Evaluation Command and will subsequently be available to all US military platforms through the CROWS programme.

In June 2019 Kongsberg demonstrated a wireless (fire control) capability for CROWS by remotely firing a Javelin anti-tank guided missile from a Protector M153 mounted on a UGV.  The live-fire demonstration - which also included the remote firing of the weapon station's M2 .50 machine gun, also included  the secure transmissions of video and fire-control data including command signals over radio from the weapon station and the missile.

Kongsberg will now provide the Wireless Protector CROWS Javelin capability for the operational evaluation of the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) Light programme.  In addition, the Protector Medium Caliber Turret, delivered on the Stryker Dragoon programme, will be the weapon system candidate for the RCV Medium system.

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

M153 Protector (CROWS II/RS4)

FGM-148 Javelin