The video shows one of five M113 A2
armored personnel carriers equipped with
a 12.7 millimeters machine gun on a
remote controlled weapon station our CWS as it Disembarks from the Philippine Navy Bacolod City class logistics
support Vessel BRP Buccolot City LS550. A corresponding photo was also posted by GMA News as profile photo of their
report in their facebook page.
The said photo shows that there are
slight differences with the philippine
army's existing fleet of RCW's armed M113 A2 APCS and the units that arrived
in Holo. Upon closer inspection and upon checking
with our sources it was confirmed that
the philippine army is indeed in
possession of additional M113A2 APCS with our CWS.
Overview in 2021 the department of
national Defense DND awarded a contract
worth php
1.051 billion with israel's albert
systems land and C4I for the M113 APC firepower upgrade project of the
philippine army. This project involves the upgrade of 44
units of existing M113A2 armored
personnel carriers of the mechanized
infantry division by equipping them with
a new remote controlled weapon station. Our CWS and converting five existing M113 A2 APCS to armored mortar carriers.
Both upgrades will include installation
of battlefield computers connected to a
networked system as part of the Pac-4 Easter System. Information received by Max Defense is
that albert will supply the already
proven dragon overhead remote controlled
weapon station. ORCWS mounted with a 12.7
millimeters heavy machine gun which
already proved its worth during the
battle of Marawi in 2017 and in other
skirmishes on operations against
terrorists groups.
More information can be read from max
defense previous, more comprehensive blog
regarding the project which can be found
on the link below. Albert systems wins
contract to upgrade philippine army M113 A2 with RCWS and mortars first posted on
june 14
2018. Albert systems will deliver the RCWS to the philippines and installation
and modifications on the existing M113A2
platforms will be done in the
philippines by a combined team from
albert systems and philippine army's
mechanized infantry division.
This setup allows the midzone
maintenance personnel to be familiar
with the installation and the entire
rcws system, enabling them to properly
identify and conduct maintenance works
without relying on albert's personnel. Initial delivery confirmed Max Defense
previously mentioned in our past blog
entry that albert systems will deliver a
first batch of around 19 vehicles by
february. But this appears to have been moved and
on march last 2021 Max Defense received
information that only 17 will be
delivered starting april 2021.
Originally some of the vehicles were
supposed to be demonstrated to president Duterte during the philippine army's
anniversary in last march, but the plan
was shelved. With the photo of the M113 A2 with RCWS and Holo coming out and observations
made by community it appears that Albert Systems was able to deliver the first 5 5 units of upgraded M113A2 with
dragon 12.7 mm ORCWS only on the last
week of april which were formally
accepted by the mechanized infantry
division.
12 12 other units which were part of the
17 units for first batch delivery will
be handed over to the mechanized
infantry division this coming last june. Albert systems will deliver the rest of
the 27 units with RCWS in two more
batches with all expected to be
delivered to the PA mid before the end
of 2021. Observations among those observed in the
units that were deployed to holo was the
positioning of the rcws.
Viewed from the front the rcws is
positioned in the center where the Cupola is located. The position is different on those
delivered by albert systems a few years
ago which are located on the right side
of the armored vehicle. This is due to the position of Cupola in
the different M113s in service with the
philippine army. The ones delivered by albert systems a
few years ago were former Belgian land
component, Belgian army, M113A vehicles, wherein the cupolas are located
off-center towards the right of the
vehicle based on Belgium's requirements. To allow for an extra commander's Cupola
just behind the driver's hatch.
The current M113 A2 being upgraded by
albert systems or former us army models whose Cupolas are centered visibis the
vehicles with as they do not have the
extra commanders cupola found on belgian
examples another observation was that
the RCWS delivered then and now look
different. Upon checking with our sources it
appears that the RCWS delivered by
albert systems to the philippine army
this year are updated models of the
dragon ORCWS which uses a different body
with improvements over the older variant.
The newer dragon orcws variant does not
have an ammunition chute and were raised
further from the vehicle by using a
longer neck. Raising the gun's elevation
several centimeters higher than the
older variant. The new variant are also
painted olive drab while the older RCWS are painted in black. Based on our sources the newer RCWS also
uses a better, updated camera with better
video and photo resolutions than the
previous model which means clearer
videos for feeding the gun operator and
connection to the information sharing
network.
The X belgian M113 A2 plus armored
vehicles supplied by elbit systems also
have smoke grenade launchers in the
front end of the vehicle will X-US Army M113 M2 used for the current RCWS upgrade do not have them. It is also clear that albert's upgrade
did not include the installation of
smoke grenade launchers on these
vehicles. Only X-US Army variants are among the 44
units being upgraded by albert systems
in the current project.
