Israel’s Elbit Systems has announced that it was awarded a contract worth approximately USD 53 million (EUR 49.3 million) on 8 May 2024 to supply its Crossbow Unmanned Turreted 120 mm soft-recoil mortar systems to General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) for installation on Pandur 6×6 armoured vehicles for a European customer.
The contract marks the first contract signed for the supply of the Crossbow system since its unveiling at the DSEI exhibition in London in September 2023.
Assuming that the platform is a version of the Pandur II, ESD believes that the customer is likely to be Austria, since while the Czech and Portuguese armies also operate this vehicle, Austria is the only country that operates the 6×6 variant, as opposed to the 8×8 version. GDELS secured a EUR 1.8 billion contract in February 2024 to supply 225 Pandur 6×6 Evolution (Evo) vehicles to Austria, adding to 100 such vehicles previously ordered.
“We are proud to receive the first order from a leading international costumer for our state-of-the-art Crossbow Unmanned Turreted Mortar System,” Udi Vered, general manager of Elbit Systems Land, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “The turreted mortar, with its precise guided round, reaffirms our commitment to developing and providing innovative and advanced land systems as solutions to the evolving needs of the modern battlefield.”
Elbit’s Crossbow turreted mortar system features a novel auto-loader mechanism that aligns the rounds to be loaded with the current position of the barrel, obviating the need for the barrel to be returned to an index position to be loaded. This gives the Crossbow system a maximum initial rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute, after which (to prevent the barrel overheating) a sustained rate of fire of six rounds per minute can be achieved.
The Crossbow mortar system, which has an effective range out to 10 km, is capable of firing on the move, multiple-round simultaneous impact (MRSI) fire missions, direct-fire missions and can also fire Elbit’s Iron Sting laser- and GPS guided precision mortar munition.
The Crossbow system was developed by Elbit under an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) contract. Speaking to ESD at DSEI 2023 on 13 September 2023, Vered said the system will be operational with the IDF in early 2025.
The Elbit Crossbow contract will be performed over a period of six years.
