UK weapons integrator ISTEC Services has completed the delivery of 65 weapon mounts for the British Army’s new M270A2 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRSs), the company announced on 12 September 2024.
The contract was placed via the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA).
ISTEC has a long history of delivering weapon integration solutions for crew-served weapons such as medium and heavy machine guns across the land, sea and air domains. The company also has an operationally proven pedigree of supplying Universal Gun Mounts (UGMs) for key British Army vehicles, such as the WMIK, Mastiff, Viking and Jackal types used for land operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Following successful trials last year ISTEC won the competitive tender to provide the M270A2 weapon mounts in late 2023 and recently competed delivery of all 65 sets of its double-swing-arm medium machine gun (MMG) solution for the new M270A2s being procured by UK Ministry of Defence. The MMG solution is crucial for enhancing the vehicles’ defensive capabilities and overall battlefield resilience, increasing the crew’s ability to protect themselves in a hostile environment.
Having been procured by the NSPA, the system is also available for other NATO countries to purchase.
“ISTEC weapons integration solutions are designed with years of experience to ensure they are easy to use, extremely robust and provide the best possible arcs of fire and range of operation depending on the mounting location and vehicle configuration,” ISTEC noted in a press release. “Users also benefit from ISTEC’s end-to-end support approach, where mounts are designed to minimise the maintenance regime, standardised parts are used where possible to reduce the logistic burden and the integration solution is fully backed by ISTECs dynamic customer support,” the company added.
Adrian Webster, operations manager at ISTEC, was quoted by the company as saying, “We are extremely pleased to have won this important project to help upgrade the UK’s MLRS platform and ensure it is fitted with the best possible crew-served weapons mount. We have years of experience in delivering this type of capability and we also have other work in support of the MLRS programme that we will announce soon.”
MLRSs upgraded to the M270A2 standard feature the new Common Fire Control System (CFCS) that allows the system to fire the Precision Strike Missile. The upgrade also feature a new 600 hp engine, a rebuilt transmission and improved cabin armour protection.
The UK launched a five-year programme to upgrade the British Army’s MLRS fleet in 2021. Although much of this work has been done by MLRS manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the upgrade also included UK-specific components such as composite rubber tracks (CRT), a vehicle camera and radar system, and the ISTEC-supplied weapon mounts.
