On 18 January 2023, Rheinmetall announced that their subsidiary American Rheinmetall Systems had signed a 5-year framework contract with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace to continue the supply of components for the US Army’s Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) programme. The total value is as of yet unconfirmed, however Rheinmetall stated that the potential value was in the “double-digit million-dollar range”. American Rheinmetall Systems supplies a number of components for the CROWS programme, including HD day cameras, weapon mounts, and various others.
In 2007, the US Army’s selected Kongsberg’s Protector M153 remote weapon station (RWS) for their CROWS II programme. This was a variant of Kongsberg’s earlier M151 design which was used with the US Army’s Stryker infantry carrier vehicle. Kongsberg has continued as the CROWS programme supplier with the more modern CROWS III and CROWS-J variants, the latter of which integrates an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). The Protector M151/M153 series is now referred to as the ‘Protector RS4’ series since Kongsberg undertook a rebranding of their RWS product line.
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