At Eurosatory 2016 in Villepinte this week, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions (CWDS) announced the company is teaming with Raytheon to provide turret drive and stabilisation system upgrades for the M60 and Challenger 1 main battle tank (MBT) fleets. This represents the company’s first major teaming partnership with Raytheon.
The company’s Electric Gun Turret Drive Upgrade Kit, developed in its drive technology business unit in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, replaces older, less accurate hydraulic and hybrid-based stabilisation systems on tanks such as the M60 and Challenger 1 with full state-of-the-art electro-mechanical drives. Stefan Jaeggi, CWDS Director of Sales, Marketing, Business Development and Programmes, indicated to MT that previous applications in which this expertise has proven useful have included the Scout/AJAX and Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme for the British army.
Curtiss-Wright has already delivered several such kits to Raytheon and supported their integration into both M60 and Challenger 1 tanks, resulting in a series of successful live test firings. The approach, according to CWDS Vice President of Business Development and Capture David Dietz, is, “a scalable, modular, off the shelf capability that significantly improves reliability, acceleration and audio noise reduction,” for the turrets in question.
The company’s approach to the upgrade market for this type of performance enhancement is entirely customer centric, according to Jaeggi. As a result, there are already a number of upgrade programmes in progress, notably in the Middle East, though the identity of the customers cannot at this stage be revealed. There are several more such programmes at an advanced stage of negotiation.
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| Individual components of the Electric Gun Turret Drive Upgrade Kit are integrated to provide enhanced stability, accuracy and speed of action for MBT main armament. |
The company’s Electric Gun Turret Drive Upgrade Kit, developed in its drive technology business unit in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, replaces older, less accurate hydraulic and hybrid-based stabilisation systems on tanks such as the M60 and Challenger 1 with full state-of-the-art electro-mechanical drives. Stefan Jaeggi, CWDS Director of Sales, Marketing, Business Development and Programmes, indicated to MT that previous applications in which this expertise has proven useful have included the Scout/AJAX and Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme for the British army.
Curtiss-Wright has already delivered several such kits to Raytheon and supported their integration into both M60 and Challenger 1 tanks, resulting in a series of successful live test firings. The approach, according to CWDS Vice President of Business Development and Capture David Dietz, is, “a scalable, modular, off the shelf capability that significantly improves reliability, acceleration and audio noise reduction,” for the turrets in question.
The company’s approach to the upgrade market for this type of performance enhancement is entirely customer centric, according to Jaeggi. As a result, there are already a number of upgrade programmes in progress, notably in the Middle East, though the identity of the customers cannot at this stage be revealed. There are several more such programmes at an advanced stage of negotiation.
