With the massive appearance of drones and FPVs over the modern battlefield, hiding assets from enemy view has become even more important than in the past. Armoured vehicles are usually fitted with grenade launchers in the 76 mm or 81 mm calibre, generally a dozen of tubes or less being installed. At the Istanbul exhibition Özben Defence presented its Modular 36-40 mm multi-barrel launcher system, a compact launcher that can be installed from light vehicles up to main battle tanks, considerably increasing their screening capability
Shooting smaller calibre grenades to save bigger calibre ones for higher risk threats allows optimising the use of obscuration effectors on board an armoured vehicle, as their number is always quite limited. Ankara based Özben Defence developed a multi-barrel launcher capable to use 36 mm or 40 mm grenades, to complement 76 mm or 81 mm launchers, this being the usual calibres usually employed on vehicles. As its name shows, the Modular 36-40 multi-barrel launch system is configurable according to customers’ requirements, the one seen at Saha Expo having 12 tubes. The launcher is fixed on the top of the vehicle and can be moved in azimuth and elevation; its integration is easy as it has no penetrating elements, therefor only the power and command cable must go through the roof and in the system baseplate. It can be powered using 18 or 32 VDC, and it is remotely fired using electric inputs. Three firing modes are available, single, group or salvo, depending on the situation. No data were provided about the mass of the system seen at the Istanbul exhibition; however, this should be quite low, which allows adding more than one launcher onto a single platform to provide increase coverage capability and shorter engagement time. Having multiple types of ammunition in increased numbers allows to scale the reaction depending on the incoming threat and the situation, vehicle on the move or static.
The Özben Defence system can also be installed on fixed installations, such as shelters or buildings, which can also become targets for enemy drones and FPVs.
Photos by P. Valpolini
