16 August 2019

TADTE 2019: Taiwan's MPC readies new low-profile RCWS for Cloud Leopard

by Kelvin Wong

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense’s (MND’s) Materiel Production Center (MPC) has unveiled a new remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS) that has been specifically designed to reduce the target profile of the Republic of China Army (RoCA)’s 8×8 CM-32 Cloud Leopard armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

The new non-hull penetrating RCWS, which is shown armed with a 40 mm Mk19 MOD3 automatic grenade launcher (AGL) and a co-axial T74 7.62 mm general purpose machine gun, is being displayed at the 2019 Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE) being held in Taipei from 15 to 17 August.

The Taiwanese Materiel Production Center has developed a new remote weapons station for potential application aboard the 8×8 Cloud Leopard armoured personnel carriers operated by the Republic of China Army. (IHS Markit/Kelvin Wong)

The RCWS is the latest addition to a family of indigenously developed remote weapon stations rolled out by the MPC’s 202nd Arsenal from 2010 and leverages on the experience gained by its designers following years of internal experimentation and user feedback from the RoCA.

Major Lu Yong-Cheng, an engineer and member of the RCWS’s development team told Jane’s on 15 August that the height of the new system has been reduced to 0.8 m, as opposed to the 1 m profile of the in-service remote weapon station. This reduction was achieved by decoupling the electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) module from its original fixed position under the weapons to an independent and traversable mount on the right side of the RCWS.

The EO/IR module retains a comparable 640×480 pixel charge coupled device (CCD) daylight camera as well as a separate thermal channel for night operations, although it also features an eye-safe laser rangefinder that can illuminate objects up to 8 km away.

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense’s (MND’s) Materiel Production Center (MPC) has unveiled a...

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