By Spc. Nikki St. Amant/The Bayonet

FORT BENNING, Ga. (TRADOC News Service, Jan. 7, 2005) – The Army is sending powerful reinforcements next week to Iraq via a shipment of 35 cutting-edge, vehicle-mounted weapons systems designed to save coalition lives and destroy enemy forces like never before.

This first wave of Common Remotely Operated Weapon Stations will be divided among Special Forces, military police, infantry and transportation units. Congress recently approved $70.5 million to provide for the manufacture and deployment of 254 units by year’s end.

CROWS, manufactured by Recon/Optical, Inc., is a gunner-operated system capable of remotely aiming and firing a suite of crew-served weapons from inside the relative safety of armored vehicles.

The idea is to get the gunner out of the turret – an extremely dangerous position that has been the cause of a significant number of injuries and deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom, said Staff Sgt. Robert Jones.