Abrams to get remote machine-gun station - Marine Corps News, news from Afghanistan - Marine Corps Times

Abrams to get remote machine-gun station

The Corps is preparing to upgrade its aging fleet of tanks, with new high-explosive rounds and safer weapons stations on the horizon.

The service plans to field the first of 3,000 new multipurpose 120mm ammunition for the M1A1 Abrams by spring, said Phillip Patch, an analyst for the tanks program at Marine Corps Systems Command, based in Quantico, Va. The rounds will allow tank crews to assist infantry units by consistently blasting holes in reinforced concrete walls and demolishing enemy bunkers with a single shot.

To accommodate the rounds, Marines in Afghanistan already have installed new hardware on their tanks. The munitions are made by Rheinmetall Defence, a Germany-based manufacturer that opened an office near Quantico in 2008.

Additionally, the Corps is planning an upgrade to the M1A1’s loader weapons station. It would give the loader, one of four Marines in a typical tank crew, a motorized gun turret that can be operated remotely from inside the tank or manually from the turret.

The Improved Loader Weapons Station “fills the need for the loader to operate his machine gun from under armor,” Patch said.

Currently, the loader operates an exposed M240B 7.62mm machine gun to the left of the tank’s main turret, manned by the vehicle commander, with the loader maneuvering his turret manually from a “skate ring.” Transparent gun shields have been added to protect the Marine, but he still has significantly less protection than when he is in the tank.

“The ILWS will allow us to get rid of skate rings and gun shields,” Patch said. “He’ll operate this as a more traditional remote weapon station from within the tank, but it’ll have a manual backup mode as well.”

In an advertisement to industry, the Corps said it expects to buy up to 500 improved loader weapons stations — enough to equip its fleet of 447 tanks, which cost more than $4 million each. A contract competition will be launched by March, with fielding beginning about a year later, Marine officials said.

Although some of the Corps’ tanks are decades old already, the service could keep them in the field for at least another decade. The Army is developing a new tank for the 21st century, but the Corps has no plans to field it, instead dedicating large chunks of its funding to the development of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and Marine Personnel Carrier, Marine officials have said.

In the meantime, the Corps plans to increase its fleet of M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles, which have an Abrams chassis and tow disabled tanks back to base. The service had 68 M88A2s last fall, and it plans to eventually expand the fleet to 103.