The US Army’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team has begun integrating the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station – Javelin (CROWS – J) and the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) into the Stryker armored fighting vehicle to enhance its lethality.
Replacing the original Stryker Remote Weapon Station, the new system allows soldiers to engage various threats from inside the vehicle and provide a “more lethal approach” in neutralizing long-range targets.
The system provides improved visual capabilities to personnel operating the vehicle.
Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) commander Col. Andrew Kiser explained that the modernization effort will improve troopers’ ability to detect, identify, and destroy enemy assets, heightening US “overmatch” against near-peer threats.
“It improves crew safety and survivability,” infantry Sgt. Joshua Carroll said in a press release. “We can engage farther than a dismounted javelin.”
‘Most Modernized in Army’
The US Army’s primary combat support platform, the Stryker is an eight-wheeled armored troop carrier with robust armor protection and a maximum speed of 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour.
It is equipped with an M2 .50 caliber machine gun and an MK-19 40-millimeter grenade launcher mounted on a remote weapon station.
The platform allows soldiers to maneuver more easily in close and urban terrain while providing added protection in open terrain. It also has a reduced acoustic signature as well as bunker and wall breaching capability.
“Including both optics and control of the primary vehicular weapon system, they allow operators to engage targets from inside the vehicle at extreme distance with an increased resolution in the camera feed,” Kiser asserted.
SBCT said that the recent upgrades to the Stryker make the vehicle “the most modernized” and “most lethal” in the US Army.