04 February 2020

IDF orders Fire Weaver network fire control system

by Samuel Cranny-Evans

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has procured the Fire Weaver networked sensor-to-shooter fire control system, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced on 3 February.

A conceptualisation of the Rafael Fire Weaver network fire-control system. (Rafael Advanced Defense Systems)

Developed jointly by Rafael, Israel’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDRD), and the IDF Ground Forces, Fire Weaver is to be integrated into armoured brigades and become operational this year, the company said in a press release.

“Fire Weaver is a main milestone in the IDF’s battlefield digitisation effort,” it quoted the IDF lieutenant colonel who is leading the DDRD project as saying. “The system essentially creates an 'operational internet' and brings to the battlefield the same innovation that the internet brought to the civilian world, the smart home, and the smart cities.”

A Rafael representative told the International Armoured Vehicles conference held in London in January that Fire Weaver would be integrated into at least one IDF armoured brigade and that it is compatible with the IDF’s Tsayad command-and-control system, which is based on Elbit Systems’ TORC2H.

Fire Weaver integrates weapons and sensors into a network and uses software to assign targets to the most appropriate effectors. A battalion command post equipped with a Fire Weaver fire management terminal has to approve engagements.

The Rafael representative explained that the system has a “dual-custody fire-control system”, meaning the operators of both the weapon and the sensor must agree to engage before a target is fired on. The sequence takes five seconds as no radio voice control is needed, he said.

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