France’s Arquus confirmed that development and testing for its Hornet family of three remote weapon stations (RWSs) is soon to enter production for the French Army at the company’s Marolles facility.
The Hornet RWS family shares common elements to reduce through-life cycle costs, and is expected to become the largest RWS programme in Europe with over 2,000 expected to be built for the French Army alone.
The Hornet RWSs are to be fitted to the French Army Nexter Systems/Thales/ Arquus Jaguar 6×6 reconnaissance vehicle, Nexter Systems/Thales/Arquus Griffon 6×6 armoured personnel carrier (APC), and the Nexter Systems/Texelis Serval 4×4.
These are all part of the French Army SCORPION network-enabled programme that is being run by France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA).
All of these Hornet RWSs have common features including electrical firing, automatic cocking, round counter, and expended cartridge case and links recovery. They are connected to the electronic architecture of the platform and have an embedded simulation compatibility.
The Jaguar 6×6 showing the Hornet S RWS with the Safran sighting system and a 7.62 mm MG. On the left is the pod of two MBDA MMP anti-tank guided missiles. (Christopher F Foss)
Details of the sensor package have not been released by the DGA. However, more generally, Arquus said the most sophisticated of this RWS family is the Hornet S, which weighs 165 kg, is fitted onto the roof of the Jaguar, and has a Safran Paseo gyro-stabilised high-definition (HD) colour day TV camera and thermal sight incorporating a laser rangefinder in the middle. The thermal camera has a continuous zoom from 1.9 to 15.2°.
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