Czechs Formalize Gun Contract for New APCs
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DID has covered the Czech Republic’s $1 billion wheeled APC competition since its inception, including the formal award of the contract for 196-232 vehicles to GD Steyr’s Pandur II. Shortly thereafter, DID covered a related contract for the APCs’ key weapons system: RAFAEL’s remotely-operated RCWS-30, with advanced optics and imaging controlling a stabilized 30mm auto-cannon, coaxial 7.62mm General-Purpose Machine Gun, smoke grenades and other defensive systems, and a launcher pod for a launcher pod for two Rafael SPIKE LR or other anti-armor missiles.
The Czechs had tested the RCWS-30 with an ATK Mk 44 dual-feed 30mm auto-cannon on both the PANDUR II and Patria Armoured Modular Vehicle (AMV) in open-water crossings (note picture); test drives on paved and off-road surfaces; and tested the fold-flat features for on-loading and off-loading in a C-130 Hercules aircraft. Now Alliant Techsystems, who has a long-standing defense relationship with RAFAEL, has formally received a contract valued at approximately $20 million for Mk 44 30mm cannon weapon systems that will equip the Czechs’ RCWS-30. The Mk 44 system is part of ATK’s well-known Chain Gun family. ATK 30mm Mk 44 guns are already used in nearly 2,000 land vehicles, aircraft, and ship-board weapon systems for the United States and allied nations including Finland, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; these weapons will also be part of the US Marines’ new Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle amphibious APC.
