More 30mm Turrets for Stryker
The US Army Contracting Command recently issued a solicitation for up to 269 additional 30mm XM813 cannons for the existing Medium Caliber Weapon System (MCWS) Lethality upgrade to its Stryker fleet. This is in addition to the earlier 42 additional MCWS packages previously announced in the 2021 budget and reported here at Overt Defense.
The XM813 is a variant of the Orbital ATK Mk44 Bushmaster II and is mounted in a Kongsberg Protector remote weapon system (RWS) turret. The MCWS or Dragoon as it is known has already deployed to Europe in 2016, and the platform is seen as a necessary counter to Russian infantry fighting vehicles such as the BMP-3 and next generation T-15.
Until the adoption of the Dragoon, Strykers were principally armed with and RWS mounted .50 heavy machine gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher, perfectly suitable for providing intimate fire support for infantry dismounts but lacking both range and penetrative capability verses Russian armour. The Dragoon has also been supplemented with a limited number of Common Remote Operated Weapons Station – Javelin (CROWS-J) variants to provide additional anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) capability.
The additional XM812 cannons will be mounted upon upgraded DVH ICVV A1 double V-hull Strykers of which an additional 154 were funded in the 2021 budget. The Stryker family has been hampered by a lack of a viable Active Protection System (APS) although Rheinmetall have been contracted to supply their hard-kill StrikeShield APS platform for testing on Stryker later in October this year.
The XM813 can fire the ATK MK310 Mod 0 Programmable Air Bursting Munition PABM and PABM-T (Traced). The MK310 round is capable of a number of settings including Airburst designed for use against entrenched enemy infantry and Point Detonate and Point Detonate-Delay for use against infantry or ATGM teams within buildings. The XM813 is mounted in the Kongsberg Protector, alongside a coaxial 7.62x51mm medium machine gun providing point defense.