The UA 571-C is a portable automatic weapon that is a defense system which is currently used by the USCMC. One sentry weighs in at 19.6 kilograms and can be assembled in under 90 seconds. The components of the sentry weapon consist of a snap-open tripod mounting, battery pack, breach and the barrel assembly, sensor unit and a 500 round ammunition drum. A microwave datalink connects to it to a command data console. Once these weapons are in place, the system can be set up to 360 degrees, which can be subject to the terrain and other restrictions, it is stationed to be used in small interlocking areas of fire on a quite narrow frontage. The UA 571-C mounts a pulse action machine gun, which uses the M250 10mm X 28 High Explosive Armor Piercing (HEAP) rounds. This is a non-standard multipurpose ammunition is to be designed specifically to defeat all targets up to and including the light armor of vehicles. The weapon has a cyclic rate of 1100 rpm and is cooled by air with an automatic cutout which prevents the loading of any more rounds into the breech, should any overheating should occur.
The unit's sensor array is mounted above the barrel and is aligned to cover a 60 degree area in front of the weapon. The sensing suite consists of cooled infra-red detector in the 3-5 um and 8-13 um band. Ambient light which are ultra-violet light optics an ultrasonic motion tracker, and laser radar scanners. If the targets visual or the thermal profile is known, then the weapon would be shut off to these targets and use infra-red or ultra-violet scans to monitor them. Sometimes, the system is set at a multi-spectral mode, where the sentries software can cross-correlate received data from each of the different sensors so it can get a full target profile.
If a sentry is set to a 'auto-remote' mode, it will 'interrogate' all targets in the sensor area, which uses a Identification Friend Foe transponder. All members of the USCMC and vehicles used by the marines have a IFF transponder in their gear which sends back a coded message which uses microwaves when they are being interrogated. If the signal is positive, then the gun will allow the people to pass, if not, then the gun will fire. If the system is set to 'manual override' or 'semi-automatic', this information is then flashed back to the command console where the operator can decide whether to fire or not.
When the weapon fires, the automatic servos in the tripod move the gun towards it's intended target. The number and the grouping of rounds fired in the burst is depending on the targets profile. So that only ammunition is used when it is needed. Some other kind of sentries include ones with a 10Kw laser and one with a 40mm automatic grenade launcher.
Pages Created by:
Trixter pages
copyright 04/19/01