New weapon system aims to make every shot count: Weapon of the Week

Historians often credit Col. William Prescott with the famous command, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” He supposedly gave the advice to British troops marching on Bunker Hill. However, whether he actually said it is subject to debate among historians.

What’s not up for debate is the phrase’s intention, make your shot count. That’s why the Smart Shooter SMASH 2000L and the SMASH Hopper are being featured in this week’s weapon of the week.

While the rifle may have been the 20th century soldier’s best friend, in the 21st, their fire control system probably isn’t far behind. One likely candidate for that role is the SMASH 2000L. Built by Smart Shooter, an Israeli defense contractor with operations in the U.S., it’s an electro-optical fire control system that works on just about any gun available.

“So it’s real simple. All you do, it acts like a standard reflex sight,” Scott Thompson, vice president and general manager of Smart Shooter Inc. said. “So you get like a dot reticle. You look through the field of view, that’s your aiming point, right? And so once you decide you’re going to engage something, you hit the button, it starts to do the calculation to that target, and you’ll see a crosshair pop up.

“All you do is move. You hold the trigger down, you hold it down, and you move the crosshair into the disturbed reticle, and it does not release the round until this says it has 100% solution. That’s why it’s so accurate.”

The Weapons and Warfare team caught up with Thompson at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting, where he walked through the system’s finer points.

“The other thing is that once you’re locked on a target, it continues to update the ballistic solution. So that’s why we can hit moving targets,” Thompson said. “That’s why you can be unstable, you can be wounded, you could be exhausted, you could be inexperienced, you know, with general weapons. It doesn’t matter. Once you’re locked on that target, the system will hit that target.”

But what really caught our eye was the SMASH Hopper. A lightweight remote-controlled weapon station, the Hopper, when paired with their fire control system, helps operators engage ground targets and small UAVs, or drones.

Soldiers can also use the SMASH Hopper in a fixed position or mounted to a vehicle.

“So, basically, the same technology, same thought process and what we’re trying to do here is demonstrate our ability to have a mobile counter UAS capability,” Thompson explained. “There’s obviously, this is a huge threat for the Air Force. They’re worried about air bases, you know. And so we can, because they don’t have a lot of kinetic solutions at this point. And this is one of the best that that’s out there right now. We think so.

“We have it mounted to a vehicle right now, but even a dismounted soldier if they’re setting up camp. Yeah, normally comes with a tripod. Yeah, it’s a little security, automated security, right? We’ve had it on UGVs. We’ve got it on small robots and tunnels. We’ve had it on telescoping masts. So, because it’s so lightweight, it can integrate to almost any kind of platform, it’s really easy.”

Access the full Weapons and Warfare episode here.

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