RAPIDFire (unmanned artillery tower)

2022: Announcement

On October 19, 2022, the companies Nexter Thales and as part of a temporary consortium presented the RAPIDFire artillery tower, created for fight with unmanned aerial vehicles, enemy aircraft and helicopters, ships, drifting mines and other things.

The RAPIDFire system is on display at the Euronaval 2022 international exhibition of naval equipment and weapons in Paris (France). The development is based on a 40 mm CTA International gun. In this case, the new tower can be installed on ships, land platforms and other suitable surfaces.

Unmanned artillery tower presented to destroy swarms of drones

The RAPIDFire complex is designed for autonomous search, capture and destruction of targets - the participation of a human operator is not required for this. For example, the system is capable of independently destroying swarms of drones. It is allowed to use different types of ammunition, which are selected automatically depending on the identified threat. 140 rounds can be loaded into the tower - they will be enough to repel about 30 packs of drones.

RAPIDFire includes an optical-electronic fire control system developed by Thales with a multispectral sight and a high-speed laser rangefinder: this unit provides the highest accuracy and efficiency. The tower has an armored design, and the target hitting radius reaches 4000 m. Remote control is possible.

The system can be easily integrated into a fixed or mobile air defense platform to protect various ground facilities, military bases, convoys, secret locations, and other critical infrastructures. One of the first RAPIDFire towers will be mounted in early 2023 aboard the tanker-tanker Jacques Chevallier of the French Navy. In addition, the turret can be adapted for the CAESAR MkII cargo chassis.^[1]

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