BAE Systems South Africa smart turret/RG41 armoured fighting vehicle

Written by Leon Engelbrecht
Thursday, 10 June 2010 06:26

BAE Systems South Africa will be displaying a new fire-on-the-move Tactical Response Turret (TRT) on its new RG41 8x8 mine-protected wheeled armoured combat vehicle at next week's Eurosatory defence show in Paris, France.

Operated by one person, the overhead remote-controlled turret provides self protection and ground support for light armoured vehicles (LAV), mine-resistant armour protected vehicles and infantry combat vehicles and will be competitively-priced, the company says.

The self-contained turret, as designed, can be fitted with a US Alliant Techsystems M242 Bushmaster 25mm cannon – or similar-sized weapons ranging from 20 to 30mm – as well as an co-axial M240 (FN MAG) machine gun. Armoured bins allow for 1000 7.62x51mm NATO rounds and 260 25x137mm rounds in two magazines of 130 rounds each. In addition, the turret is fitted with four 76mm smoke launchers. Traverse is all-round and elevation is from -10 to +65 degrees. Mechanical or software-controlled interruptors are available to restrict movement in azimuth in order to create “prohibited zones”.

BAE Systems says the turret weighs 800kg of which some half is the weapon and ammunition. On a typical LAV such as those derived from the MOWAG Piranha, the TRT offers a weight saving of 1200kg. It is also a major space-saver, the company avers. The TRT is typically 1100mm high and 1320mm wide. Traverse is at 1.8 rad/s, 103 degrees a second or 3.5 seconds to circle, elevation is 1.5 ad/s or 85 degrees a second. Stabilisation is “better than 0.5 rad/s” while operational on the move while laying accuracy is better than 150 Rad with automatic optical tracking after manual lock-on.

The standard sighting sensor system allows for identification by day at 1000m and by night at 750m in terms of STANAG 4347), while the Vectronics 3042 laser range finder ranges to 5km. A “high performance” suite offers identification by day at 2500m and 1600m at night. The suite's Carl Zeiss laser range finder does so at 12km. In both cases a further commanders' observation sight is available.

The turret was developed by Land Systems SA's Dynamics business – the former IST Dynamics, acquired in September 2008 and the “non-complex” man machine interface or “battle station” can be positioned anywhere in the carrier vehicle. An optional commander's station is available. The fire control system (FCS) includes a fully-integrated ballistic computer, an integrated automatic video auto-tracker, aim-point adjustment based on target speed and distance as well as a continuous electronic zoom combined with a fixed field of vision. Optional is a patent-pending “rapid-target designation” system available to the commander. Further options include the integration of the FCS with onboard command-and-control suites or battle management systems, GPS and navigation means as well as a laser warning and shot detection system. Additional armour protection is also available, BAE Systems product literature adds.

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.ph...and&Itemid=105

The new RG41 armoured fighting vehicle and Tactical Remote Turret (TRT) that BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa will formally launch on to the world market at next week’s Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris in France are both entirely South African in design and development.

The TRT with 25 mm Bushmaster cannon, mounted on an RG34 vehicle

Both were developed with our own research and development funding and in both cases the intellectual property is owned by Land Systems South Africa,” highlighted company marketing and communications manager Natasha Pheiffer to Engineering News Online on Thursday. “We are busy patenting one of the TRT’s features – its rapid target designation capability.”

BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa is 75%-owned by the global group BAE Systems and 25% by local, and black-empowered, company DGD Technologies, and comprises three divisions.

The new RG41 armoured vehicle

The RG41 is the latest in a long and successful line of armoured and mine-protected vehicles from BAE Systems Land Systems OMC, which is based in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, while the TRT comes from Pretoria-domiciled BAE Systems Land Systems Dynamics. (The third division is located in Alrode, which is south of Johannesburg, and is BAE Systems Land Systems Gear Ratio).

“The RG41 was developed to meet a general requirement noted by us in the world market, as was the TRT,” she explained. “We saw a gap in the market for turrets and ours is a cost-effective design.”

The company is not yet in any talks with possible customers for either system. “We will start to gauge the interest at Eurosatory next week.”

The RG41 is an 8 x 8 wheeled armoured fighting vehicle which is 7,78 m long, 2,8 m wide and 2,357 m high (hull only). It can carry a crew of three, plus an infantry section of eight.

Its payload capacity is 11 t and it has a gross vehicle mass of 30 t, and, powered by a Deutz 2015TCD V6 diesel engine, can reach a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

The RG41 is a mine-protected, modular design capable of being repaired in the field, with high mobility and a comfortable ride because it has a specially modified hydro-pneumatic suspension. The vehicle employs many commercial-off-the-shelf components and does not employ any American components that are subject to US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

The TRT is designed to be operated by one person and to be able to be fitted to a wide range of armoured vehicles. Equipped with electromechanical drives it has a unique functionality which allows for rapid acquisition of, and locking on to, targets. It can rotate 360˚ in a time of 3,5 seconds, and elevate from -10˚ to +65˚.

It can be fitted with day monochrome or colour charge-coupled device cameras and a thermal night camera for target detection and combines “game-boy” style controls with a 104 mm liquid crystal display screen. The vehicle commander can also be provided with a sight for the TRT.

Currently, the TRT is equipped with a McDonnel Douglas M242 Bushmaster 25-mm cannon and a 7,62-mm co-axial machine gun, but can be adjusted to take alternative weapons up to 30-mm in calibre.

street fighting

10,000 strong to stop Ground Zero mosque

As many as 10,000 protesters from across the country – including family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001 – took to the streets in New York City Sunday to fight construction of a 13-story Islamic mosque to be built just steps from Ground Zero where Muslim terrorists murdered 2,751 people in the name of Allah.

Now the organizers plan to sue the federal government to designate the site as a war memorial

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SILYNX C4OPS ShadowOps

http://www.silynxcom.com/sitefiles/1/29/355.asp
link for pictures



Designed to provide the most advanced two way radio communication system and transmit full surround audio for discrete monitoring and eavesdropping.

This miniaturized and concealed headset features a chest-worn Inductor microphone, a wired or wireless PTT, a radio connector and a wireless induction earpiece. The ShadowOps™ is also supplied with a transparent acoustic tube for semi-covert operations.

Miniaturized and anatomic wireless induction earpiece
● Fits left or right ear
● Continuous operations for more than 200 hours on one Zinc Air battery
● Induction/Microphone box
Miniaturized induction/microphone box
● Speaker for transparent acoustic tube
● Induction/acoustic tube mode switch
● Microphone sensitivity switch (normal or eavesdropping)
PTT
● Remote wired PTT
● Dual Wireless PTT- easily concealed in pockets and other locations
Optional Configurations and Features:
● ShadowOps kit for Urban AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Maritime AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Urban AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Martime AN/PRC148 MBITR includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Motorola XTS300/5000 includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wireless PTT
● ShadowOps kit for Motorola XTS300/5000 includes : wireless earpiece, covert headset, acoustic tube and wired PTT

Humvee replacement - First Look: Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)

We spent the day at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., yesterday riding around in the three entrants for the Army-Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) competition; the Humvee replacement as it’s often called. The industry teams are: BAE Systems, General Tactical Vehicles (GTV) — a joint venture between General Dynamics Land Systems and Humvee builder AM General, and Lockheed Martin.

They wouldn’t let us shoot the inside of the vehicles for security reasons, but they all pretty much resembled later iterations of the Humvee, a little cramped (particularly the 6 seat infantry carrier), though with plenty of extra goods such as blast seats, more computing and electrical power, flat panel monitors and functioning air conditioning.

The ride in all three JLTVs was impressively smooth and the vehicles had plenty of power climbing hills and obstacles. The JLTV family of vehicles will come in 2, 4 and 6 seat versions, along with a cargo hauler and ambulance. The program folks say they’ll provide MRAP level protection against IED blasts. The planned buy is 60,000 for the Army and 5,500 for the Marines; full production is planned for 2015

BAE Systems

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...2b87f.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...259379f16d55ab

GTV

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...4e0ad.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...0a0ba52a0332c1

Lockheed Martin

Image link: http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...0168e.Full.jpg
Video: http://shock.military.com/Shock/play...45f07f6156fd05

i say either the lockheed for the GTV, your thought??

BAE CV90 Armadillo

The Global Combat Systems sector of Britain's BAE Systems will reveal the new Armadillo concept of its CV90 armored combat vehicle family at the Eurosatory 2010 trade show outside Paris.The latest iteration in a vehicle line that has won more than 1,100 orders, CV90 Armadillo is intended to bring a high level of flexibility in payload and battlefield utility to a new range of vehicles using common CV90 components, according to the company.

"This is a concept of a flexible family of vehicles of modular type built around the CV90 platform," said Hakan Karlsson, vice president of marketing communications for BAE Global Combat Systems in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden.

An ideal armored combat vehicle, Karlsson said, offers a balance between high mobility, high payload and extremely high protection; should have a practical and effective interface for digitally equipped soldiers and the digital battlespace; should be reliable and affordable; and above all, offer a low logistics footprint. This has been the ethos behind the development of the Armadillo build standard, Karlsson told journalists May 27 in a London briefing.

BAE has analyzed the degree of commonality between variants in existing CV90 vehicles, and overlaid on this the benefits of a modular approach to future variants based on the Armadillo standard. Based on cost, engineering effort expended and the number of major common components, the company believes it can achieve between 65 percent and 88 percent commonality for turreted, personnel carrier and specialist engineering vehicles.

The real payoff for the Armadillo comes in its available payload of 16 metric tons, according to Karlsson. In its armored personnel carrier form, the CV90 Armadillo will weigh in at 26 metric tons, leaving 9 metric tons of payload availability, which can be traded off against higher levels of protection.

The standard level of protection is already high. "Resistance to mines in the 8-10 kilogram area is already considered pretty good - we have achieved protection well in excess of the 10 kilogram bracket; we are setting new standards with the Armadillo program," Karlsson said.

Armor protection also is high, at "well above Level 5," and the entire vehicle architecture has been built with ease of interoperability with tomorrow's digital soldier in mind.

Equipped with a Saab LEDS150 hard-kill self-protection system, a BAE Lemur remote weapon station, and external fire suppression equipment to deal with urban warfare attacks from Molotov cocktails and the like, the Armadillo family will include ambulance, mortar, personnel carrier, command-and-control, logistics support and recovery variants, depending on customer demand.

Future development may well examine other variants, such as a vehicle-launched bridge, with a continued focus on improving the payload/protection balance, according to Karlsson.

Questioned on the degree to which the design had taken into account the development of soldier modernization programs, Karlsson responded that there are several challenges that need to be balanced.

"We need to provide adequate power and cooling, ensure we can cope with handling and sharing tactical information with the crew, and also maintain a useful level of useable payload and space," he said.

spainish sub photographed transport of weapons in the Syrian coast

The Spanish submarine S-72 Siroco watched the movements of arms on the coast of Syria in the weeks before the controversy over the alleged transfer of Syrian Scud missiles to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The image captured, which can be seen easily dozens of military vehicles on the deck of a merchant ship was taken from near the Syrian port of Tartus on 2 March.

The Sirocco was patrolling the area under anti-terrorist operation Active Endeavour, NATO, ie, monitoring maritime traffic in search ships suspected of carrying out weapons smuggling. The Spanish navy says the merchant, photographed periscope height (from the submerged submarine) was "suspicious" by the criteria of the operation, although it claims that the information about the final destination of the cargo and the ship's flag is seen photographed classified material.

What reveals itself the image captured by the Spanish periscope, near the Syrian coast, is the obvious interest of NATO to control the movement of weapons that might be taking place at that time and in that part of the Mediterranean Sea. NATO, certainly not the shot he missed. A few weeks after the snapshot taken by the Sirocco, on 13 April, Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke of sending a dangerous missile from Syria to Hezbollah and of rapid rearmament of the Islamist militia. His message was immediately followed by another of King Abdullah of Jordan on the high risk of an imminent armed conflict in the Middle East. The controversy had begun.

Scuds and M-600

Since then, although Syria has denied it repeatedly, from Israel have continued to succeed accusations that Iran is supplying Scud missile and M-600 to Hezbollah with the complicity of Damascus. Both the Scuds as the M-600 have a power far greater than the missiles that Hezbollah has so far, using it as they have a range exceeding 600 kilometers from the Lebanese border could reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

Although the United States has not officially confirmed the existence of these alleged missiles, and the UN mission in Lebanon claims to have found no evidence on the alleged shipment, there is something in which both Washington and the UN agree to publicly and unambiguously Israel: There is strong evidence that Hezbollah is increasing its arsenal.

The accusations involving Syria have been a blow to attempts by the U.S. President, Barack Obama, closer to Damascus, to which his government sees as crucial to peace efforts in the Middle East.

Satellite imagery and the large simulation

The British newspaper 'The Times' took a giant step in the controversy on Friday when he claimed to have had access to satellite imagery to show the existence of Hezbollah missiles on Syrian soil. The English newspaper, said that information gathered by American satellites shows the existence of a Lebanese militia complex located near the Syrian town of Adra, northwest of Damascus. A base which would include shelters, weapons, and a fleet of trucks for transfer.

The weapons in question would either Syrian or supplied from Iran by sea or by air. The 'Times' said that American intelligence suspected that at least two Scuds had entered Lebanon and could be hidden in underground deposits in the Bekaa Valley, north of the country. As if that were not enough elements of tension, last week, Israel carried out the largest simulation of war in its history: a period of five days' duration, designed to prepare the population for a scenario of massive attack with missiles from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip

idf soldiers talk about what happen on the flotilla

Flotilla Passengers Fire Live Ammunition at IDF Soldiers

weapons found on flotilla heading to gaza

PEACE ACTIVIST, HEADING TO GAZA WITH ALL THERE PEACE AND LOVE.

Israeli commandos storm aid flotilla; 9 killed

Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and called for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council as condemnations erupted across Europe and the Arab world Monday over Israel's deadly commando raid on ships taking humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Government after government demanded an explanation from Israel, which said its soldiers were trying to defend themselves against armed activists. The White House said it was trying to learn more about "this tragedy."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "it should be known that we are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism." Most of the nine dead were apparently from Turkey, once a close ally of Israel.

In Istanbul, a crowd tried to storm the Israeli Consulate. North of Jerusalem, Palestinians hurled bottles and stones at Israeli soldiers. In Jordan, hundreds urged their government to follow Turkey's lead and cut ties with Israel. Dozens of Egyptians protested outside the foreign ministry in Cairo criticizing the Egyptian government holding pictures of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Israel said the activists attacked its commandos as they boarded the six ships taking tons of supplies to Gaza, while the flotilla's organizers said the Israeli forces opened fire first.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence. The European Union's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc was deeply concerned and she called on Israel to carry out an inquiry. British Foreign Secretary William Hague deplored the killings and called for an end to the Gaza blockade.

Greece, Egypt, Sweden, Spain and Denmark summoned Israel's ambassadors demanding explanations for the violence, with Spain and France condemning what they called the disproportionate use of force. Greece suspended a military exercise with Israel and postponed a visit by Israel's air force chief. Germany called for an immediate investigation but was careful not to directly place blame, and said it was seeking information on six German citizens believed to have been aboard the ships.

In Tehran, dozens of angry students pelted the U.N. offices with stones and eggs in protest, burning Israeli flags and chanting, "death to Israel" and "down with U.S." Police blocked them from reaching the building. The president of Iran, a key supporter of Hamas, called the raid "an inhuman act." In Baghdad, an estimated 3,000 Shiite followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr shouted "Death, death to Israel!" and "Death, death to America!"

Riot police used tear gas to drive back hundreds of protesters demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy in Paris. There were also demonstrations in Rome, Sweden, Norway, Cyprus and more than 20 cities in Greece.

In Athens, riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse around 2,500 Greeks and Arabs protesting outside the Israeli Embassy. Some protesters threw stones and tried to push past police lines to reach the embassy. About 2,000 people demonstrated peacefully in Thessaloniki.

The African Union issued a statement to "strongly condemn" the raid and said it "complicates the existing situation and the effort to bring just, lasting and comprehensive peace to the area."

Abdel-Rahman al-Attiya, the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional group, said "Israel is a renegade entity that violates international law" and said the attack should be considered "a war crime."

In Saudi Arabia, which has promoted a wider Arab-Israeli peace proposal calling for a land-for-peace swap, the Cabinet headed by King Abdullah called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for its "barbaric" policies.

But the strongest reaction came from Turkey, where Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Turkey was canceling three joint military drills and calling on the U.N. Security Council to convene in an emergency session about Israel. Turkey is currently a member of the council.

He also said a Turkish youth soccer team currently in Israel would be brought home.

The raid also brought heightened attention to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed after the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized control of the tiny Mediterranean territory in 2007. The blockade — along with Israel's fierce offensive against Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 to stop Hamas rocket fire on Israeli villages — has fueled anti-Israeli sentiment around the Arab world.

The Cairo-based Arab League called an emergency session for Tuesday to address the attack, as the two only Arab states with peace deals with Israel — Jordan and Egypt — sharply condemned the violence.

The incident also put Egypt in a tight position. The only Arab country bordering the Gaza Strip, it has helped enforce the blockade by cracking down on smuggling tunnels that are a key source of goods to Gaza's 1.5 million people and by rejecting pressure that it open its border crossing.

A group founded by Nelson Mandela that includes Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter said "the treatment of the people of Gaza is one of the world's greatest human rights violations and that the blockade is not only illegal, it is counterproductive."

In Beirut, about 500 Palestinian and Lebanese activists protested in front of the U.N. headquarters, setting Israeli flags on fire. In neighboring Syria, more than 200 Syrian and Palestinian protesters staged a sit-in before the offices of the United Nations

YEA BUT TOO BAD THE NEWS WONT SHOW WHAT REALLY HAPPEN TO THESE SO CALLED "PEACE ACTIVIST"