Would Give Ospreys Add'l -- Some Say Much-Needed -- Teeth

BAE Systems unveiled Wednesday its new remotely operated turreted weapon system, the Remote Guardian System (RGS), designed to provide 360 degrees of suppressive fire for the Marine Corps V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.

Company representatives tell ANN in recent stability testing at Camp Ripley, MN, the RGS -- sporting a GAU-17, 7.62 mm mini-gun -- was mounted on a moving land vehicle test platform. The testers demonstrated the weapon's accuracy, based on the three-axis stability and control.

"RGS performed admirably in the tests, demonstrating accurate fire on-the-move," Clark Freise, vice president of defense avionics for BAE Systems, said in introducing the system at the Modern Day Marine Expo in Quantico, VA. "Due to the support and feedback we received from the Marine Corps' requirements and user communities, we are now launching this as a mature system."

BAE Systems, which has been working with the user community to develop and demonstrate this capability since mid-2005, is planning to make the system available for installation beginning in the third quarter of 2008.

RGS, designed to be belly-mounted on the V-22, is the first remote weapon system capable of delivering accurate, sustained fire throughout the aircraft's entire flight envelope. It features a compact, retractable design that saves valuable aircraft cabin space and was designed to be completely compatible with the V-22's avionics suite.

Though initially designed to accomodate a nose-mounted .50-caliber Gatling gun, the only weapon now mounted on field-spec Ospreys is a tail-mounted .30-cal machine gun, meant to provide defensive cover for Osprey crews during takeoff from a combat zone. Critics of the aircraft have slammed the Pentagon's decision to go with the single, ramp-mounted weapon.

FMI: www.baesystems.com, www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/mv-22.htm