US Navy Buys Typhoon RWS
May 19, 2006 06:57 EDT
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Reader Guy Cramer of Hyperstealth sends in this tidbit from Jordan, where his company is working on a series of camouflage initiatives from Jordan’s armed forces. Jordan News quotes the Israeli Yediot Aharonot newspaper to say that that RAFAEL signed a $28 million deal to sell its Typhoon naval weapons system to the US Navy. Like CROWS, the Typhoon is operated via screen and joystick, and is a self-contained, stabilized, unmanned weapons turret. It comes in different sizes; Typhoon and Mini-Typhoon systems can be fitted with machine guns, autocannon, and/or grenade launchers from 5.56mm to 40mm, and can even add anti-armor or air defense missiles. They are in use in a number of countries, including the Israeli Navy’s recently-covered Super Dvoras and Australia’s new Armidale Class patrol boats/corvettes.
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It will be interesting to see where the US Navy plans to deploy its new Typhoon weapons systems. A recent DID article covering its reborn Coastal Warfare Squadrons noted the contrast between the manned, unshielded, pintle-mounted 7.62mm machine guns on the small SeaARK vessels assigned to take on river patrols and terrorist fast attack boats, vs. the other navies who used stabilized, remotely-operated systems like the Israeli Typhoon to provide safer and more accurate firepower overmatch.
