An increasing number of armies are now fitting their light armoured vehicles with full remote-controlled weapon stations (RCWS), rather than simple protected weapon stations, which are typically armed with only a 7.62mm or 12.7mm machine gun (MG).

Serbia has developed to the prototype stage a low-profile 20mm RCWS called Kerber which weighs around 1,000kg with weapons and ammunition, allowing it to be installed on top of lighter platforms... Continues below

This analysis article originally appeared in December's Decisive Edge Land Warfare Newsletter.

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This has been shown integrated onto the locally developed and produced Milosh 4x4 tactical vehicle as well as Yugoimport’s Lazar 8x8 armoured personnel carrier.

Kerber is of all-welded armour construction with a sensor pod on the right side which includes a day channel with magnification of x36 and a thermal imaging (TI) camera with horizontal field of view (FOV) of 6.2 degrees and a vertical FOV of 5 degrees.

The TI camera enables targets to be detected and identified under almost all weather conditions. Additionally, there is a laser rangefinder with a maximum range of up to 10,000m with an accuracy of plus or minus five metres, which feeds information to the fire control system (FCS) to provide an increased first-round-hit probability.

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The gunner is seated in the vehicle under armour protection and provided with a flat panel display with joystick and ballistic computer.

Main armament comprises a triple M55 cannon which fires 20x110 mm ammunition. The M55 weapon has been manufactured in Serbia for many years for applications including air defence.

Traverse is all-electric through a full 360 degrees with elevation from minus 5 to plus 81 degrees, with the latter being very useful for engaging aerial targets and in urban operations among high-rise buildings.

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Each weapon is provided with a drum-type magazine which holds 60 rounds; these have a typical muzzle velocity of 850m/s and a maximum effective range of up to 2,000m.

Once these drums have been emptied a crew member must leave the vehicle and manually replace them with a new magazine, something which is claimed to take around 60 seconds.

Mounted two either side at the rear of the RCWS are two 82mm electrically operated smoke grenade units which cover the frontal arc.

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The main drawback of the Kerber is that the weapons are not stabilised so the vehicle has to come to a halt to engage targets, especially when they are moving.

Yugoimport is also marketing another RCWS called Kiklop which is armed with a single 20mm M55 cannon, fed from a magazine which holds 250 rounds of belted ready-use ammunition.

This has the same sensor pod as the Kerber but is also armed with a 7.62mm PKT co-axial MG.

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