Last week (16 March 2023), SIG SAUER announced the acquisition of Israeli robotics expert General Robotics, a world-leading manufacturer of lightweight, remote weapon stations and tactical robotics.
“This acquisition will greatly enhance SIG SAUER’s growing portfolio of advanced weapon systems.” Ron Cohen, President and CEO of SIG SAUER, Inc., said. “The team at General Robotics is leading the way in developing intuitive, lightweight remote weapon stations with their battle-proven solution,” Cohen added.
Recently, the U.S. Army selected the SIG SAUER lightweight machine gun (XM250), automatic rifle (XM7), and high-pressure hybrid ammunition for the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program, representing a historic step forward in weapons technology. The NGSW program is in the early stages of adoption, and the U.S. Army will field the weapons at the squad level in 2023.
In January 2023, SiG demonstrated their SIG’s MG 338 belt-fed machine mounted on a General Robotics PITBULL Remote Weapons Station installed on a Polaris All Terrain Vehicle. This application enables special operators to deliver precision suppressive fires at long range from defensive positions, using PITBULL’s remote control capability. The two companies demonstrated the combined system at the Shot Show 2023 in Las Vegas and IDEX 2023 in Abu Dhabi.
“Combining the General Robotics remote weapons station with SIG SAUER’s lightweight squad weapons and high-pressure hybrid ammunition will revolutionize small arms for military forces worldwide. This acquisition exponentially increases the capabilities of our lightweight weapon systems delivering transformative advancements in mobility, greater lethality, and battle-tested force protection for today’s warfighters,” Cohen commented.
General Robotics currently provides two types of lightweight RWCS – the PITBULL is designed for land vehicles, autonomous ground robots, and marine applications PITBULL and the SHARK is optimized for marine applications in manned and unmanned vessels. The company also markets the DOGO, an armed, tracked robot for indoor surveillance. Dogo was initially designed to operate only with Glock handguns but is now configured to operate some SIG handguns. The company’s weapon systems are remotely controlled from a small tablet, featuring an advanced user interface that enables fast orientation, agile movement, effective surveillance, quick weapon alignment, and tracking of targets to facilitate fast and effective engagement. These capabilities also enable the effective use of the weapon as a hard-kill countermeasure against drones.
