Is Hollywood and the military influencing each other on military hardware and weaponry procurement and design? I am incline to think so because, Ripsaw, the sports tank that had seen some Hollywood actions, has been pitching itself to the U.S. Army too.
Actually, that did not just happen. It has been going on for a while now and the Ripsaw you see here, known as Ripsaw M5, is the latest model from Howe and Howe Technologies that will be vying for the the U.S. Army’s new Robotic Combat Vehicle tender.
Howe and Howe is apparently now a division of defense contractor Textron. The Ripsaw M5 was unveiled at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual convention in D.C.
Non-combat Ripsaw has reputation of a speed demon on tracks, capable of making up to 65 mph an hour. The M5, however, is a “suit up” combat variant, complete with a turret armed with a beefy 30 mm XM813 Bushmaster main gun.
It further features a FLIR systems with both electro-optical and infrared cameras, as well as a digital sighting system.
In addition, it is capable deploying its own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from its top and there’s a built-in bay up front that can ramp down to dispatch a Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) such as an explosive ordnance disposal vehicle or reconnaissance vehicle.
Man, this is just way to sci-fi. And that’s just one of the possible configuration. The Ripsaw will remain a modular, scalable system that can be reconfigured to meet different mission requirements.
The Army has been testing both manned and unmanned versions of the mini-tank for some years now. The M5 is just the company’s latest pitch, or a show of what it can do, if you will.
Images: The Drive/Textron Systems.
Source: The Drive.
