FN Herstal gained some extra notoriety recently when it came out that the Ft. Hood shooter used a Five-SeveN pistol to gun down his fellow soldiers.
Now the arms-maker is displaying a real-life, ammo-counting Aliens-style assault rifle at the Paris Military Police Expo — a SCAR with an Armatronics Black Box built into the grip:
The FN Black Box detects, discriminates, counts shots, measures burst rates and burst lengths, records firing sequences and detects stoppages due to failures to cycle. Storing such information allows preventive maintenance and facilitates corrective maintenance, which greatly increases weapon reliability and availability.
The FN Black Box can also communicate useful information to the chain of command during a mission. It contains the identification number of the weapon and, thus, can indirectly identify the soldier. When coupled to a GPS, it can transmit its identification and localization data to the upper level of the command through the communication equipment of the soldier.The FN Black Box is a molded module that fits in any weapon type. It features a non-replaceable battery that has a service life of 10 years and a recording capacity of 100,000 rounds.
The other half of the package is the Moving Red Dot Fire Control Unit:
Successful target engagement with tube-launched grenades requires precise range estimation to the target and launch at the exact elevation angle, while keeping correct azimuth aiming.
With FN Herstal’s Moving Red Dot Fire Control Unit (FCU), the shooter can now rely on a light, compact and device to significantly increase the effectiveness of grenade launchers.
The FN FCU consists of:
- A laser range finder (LRF), which calculates the distance between the shooter and the target
- A clinometer, which measures the difference in elevation between the shooter and the target
- A ballistic computer, which calculates the angle of launch required
- A moving red dot sight (MRD), which gives the correct aiming point