Description

Many vehicles on patrol missions in Iraq and Afghanistan were equipped with hand-operated weapons. Even though such weaponry is surrounded by armor plates and bulletproof glass, exposed operators are still vulnerable to damage from surrounding fire snipers and explosive devices. Therefore, the XM153 Crow (Universal Remotely Operated Weapon Station) was born to replace these manually operated weapons. The system allows the operator to hide in the car body, and the aiming and launching process can be performed by remote control. This weapon station is equipped with sensor modules and video cameras, thermal imaging devices and laser rangefinders. The Raven II can flexibly carry a variety of weapons, including .50 M2, M240B and M259 machine guns and MK19 automatic grenade launchers. Since 2004, more than 1,000 such systems have been installed on the M1114 Hummer, M1A2 Abrams, M1126 Stryker and many MRAP vehicles including the Buffalo MRCV.