Israel’s Smartshooter says US Army expanding use of high-tech fire control system
JERUSALEM — The US Army is expanding its experimentation with Israeli firm Smartshooter’s high-tech fire control system with what the company said is a new $13 million contract. The system will be deployed “as part of the Army’s Transformation in Contact (TIC2.0) forces,” Smartshooter said in an announcement last week, part of what it said… Keep reading →
A soldier uses Israeli firm Smartshooter’s Smash 2000L aiming system. (Smartshooter image)
JERUSALEM — The US Army is expanding its experimentation with Israeli firm Smartshooter’s high-tech fire control system with what the company said is a new $13 million contract.
The system will be deployed “as part of the Army’s Transformation in Contact (TIC2.0) forces,” Smartshooter said in an announcement last week, part of what it said was the Army’s “accelerated testing and integration of advanced technologies on the battlefield.”
The new order builds on a 2022 order from the Army for Smartshooter’s Smash 2000L system, which is a lightweight, handheld system that is used on rifles and assists the operator to control their fire when aiming at an object, such as a small quadcopter drone.
“Using computer vision, artificial intelligence, and advanced tracking algorithms, it enables Soldiers to detect, track, and precisely eliminate aerial and ground targets with unmatched accuracy,” the company says.
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Though the dollar figure for the new contract is small, Scott Thompson, general manager of the firm’s US subsidiary, told Breaking Defense it’ll allow the system to get into the hands of many more soldiers and, for the first time, be “integrated into the combat formation.”
“It means that the Army is confident that our weapon mounted Fire Control system can defeat this small UAS threat and increase the individual soldiers survivability, as well as safeguards the maneuvering unit as a whole,” he said. “This recognition marks another step in the broader adoption of our technology as an essential capability at the tactical edge.”
Thompson highlighted the threat to soldiers from small quadcopters, a phenomenon borne out in the battlefields of Ukraine as well as during Israeli operations in Gaza.
“These experiences reinforced the need for individual soldiers to have the capability to defeat small UASs. Across various operational theaters, we see drones posing a serious threat to forces — whether carrying cameras for reconnaissance or explosives for direct attacks,” he said.
Smartshooter CEO Michal Mor said the firm hopes the new contract is a “significant step toward Army-wide fielding.” (For both Army purchases, the contracts were officially awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency and arranged through third-party contracting vendors, according to Smartshooter.)
In the meantime, Thompson said Smartshooter counter-drone tech is being requested by individual American army commands overseas, and orders are coming in from all branches of the military. It’s use in Army units, he said, is critical.
“For us, the key milestone is the growing integration of our systems into the force structure — becoming part of the core equipment carried by combat units,” he said.
