US Army hosts Javelin live-fire demo

The US Army recently fired four Javelin missiles, including three from different vehicles, during a recent demonstration at Redstone Test Center in Alabama.

During this late-May demo, three types of vehicles each outfitted with a different configuration of either Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace's Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station-Javelin (CROWS-J) or its Protector RS6 Remote Weapon Station (RWS) each fired a missile, Kongsberg wrote in a 25 June announcement. These vehicles included QinetiQ North America's Robotic Combat Vehicle-Light (RCV-L) prototype outfitted with CROWS-J, a 4×4 Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) outfitted with the RS6 RWS, and a Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) with the RS6 RWS.

“Using both top-attack and direct-attack engagement trajectories, Javelin scored direct hits on tank hulk targets, positioned at 700 meters, 2,000 meters, and 3,250 meters away,” Lockheed Martin wrote in a separate announcement. Additionally, one Javelin was fired in its man-portable configuration.

“While Javelin was originally designed for one-man-portable use, this firing demonstrated its versatile platform integration capabilities,” Javelin Joint Venture Vice President Dave Pantano said. “The four-shot demonstration also showed attendees that Javelin maintains its precision and performance, regardless of configuration or platform type.”

Lockheed Martin noted that during one engagement a Javelin F-model was used – a weapon designed to provide “improved performance” against “soft targets”.

This recent demo comes as the army begins shakedown testing with its RCV prototypes including the four light configuration vehicles. The RCV-Ls have now received government-development autonomy software, a new radio, and can be paired up with modified Bradleys that are called Mission Enabler Technologies–Demonstrators (MET-Ds) for manned-unmanned teaming work, Major General Ross Coffman, the director of the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team, told Janes on 15 June.