This gun turret, with a polygon-faceted casing that makes it look like a weapon from the Halo series of games, is a proper remote-control weapon station. To understand what Rheinmetall’s turret for the OMFV might look like, consider the new Natter 7.62 turret, announced by Rheinmetall on August 17. By bringing in Rheinmetall and attaching the future of the gun to the future of the OMFC, the Army could bypass the tricky problems of retrofitting an existing machine with a new heavy weapon, and instead mount it on a vehicle built around the gun.
This 50mm gun was first delivered to the Army in September 2020, and it has yet to be mounted on any armored vehicle. With both high explosive and armor piercing options, that gun can fight both masses of people, formations of light vehicles, or even threaten heavier armor. Switching to the 50mm gun means doubling the effective range of a fighting vehicle’s main weapon. This kind of weapon is useful for fighting other lightly armored vehicles and against helicopters, though it lacks the full stopping power of a main tank cannon. Presently, armored fighting vehicles-which are like tanks, but smaller, and sometimes have human passengers-feature 25mm chain guns as the heavy weapon in their turrets. The OMFV is tank-like and designed to be both human-crewed and sometimes fully robotic. The immediate goal of Rheinmetall’s new contract, as reported by Shepard News, is figuring out a way to mount a 50mm heavy chain gun on the Army’s future Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV), which several companies are competing to make. It also produces tank-like vehicles, such as the turreted and wheeled Boxer armored troop transport, or the tracked but turretless Armored Recovery Vehicles.
Rheinmetall already makes a range of vehicles, including tanks. On August 26, German defense giant Rheinmetall signed an agreement with the US Army’s Development Command to collaborate on vehicle weapons, fire control, and ammunition. In the next decade, when the US Army goes to war, its tanks might have German-engineered turrets capable of autonomously finding and tracking targets.
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