Smart Shooter develops SMASH Hopper to be mounted on armored vehicles
Next step: Mount precision fire control system on autonomous vehicle
By ANNA AHRONHEIMThe SMASH Hopper by Smart Shooter
Israeli small arms manufacturer Smart Shooter has released a light remote-controlled weapon station dubbed SMASH Hopper that can be mounted on an armored tactical vehicle and successfully hit moving targets, both on the ground and in the air, from more than 300 m.Weighing some 15 kg., the SMASH Hopper is a compact and easily deployable system that is controlled by an operator from a safe distance or from inside a protected vehicle when mounted on the Plasan Re’em Armored Toyota Hilux vehicle and provides a “one shot-one hit” capability.Like other systems manufactured by Smart Shooter, it features a safe trigger mechanism and offers day and night capability with automatic scanning and target detection. The system can be deployed on various lightweight manned and unmanned vehicles and platforms.SMASH Hopper can be used for multiple mission scenarios, including force protection, border security, anti-drone, remote ambush, as well as low-profile operations in complex urban environments.Plasan Re’em CEO Yaakov Ben-Ari said that integrating the SMASH Hopper onto the vehicle “creates a tiebreaker solution that dramatically increases accuracy, lethality, and survivability of small arms.”According to him, the system is “ideal” for special forces, law enforcement and border security, “especially in scenarios where weight, time and precision play an indispensable role.”Smart Shooter CEO Michal Mor called the installation of the SMASH Hopper on armored 4x4 vehicles “another step in a series of trials for different configurations and applications of the SMASH Hopper, and once again we were thrilled to see how every bullet finds its target.”Mor told The Jerusalem Post that the SMASH Hopper is “an extension of our line which protects and aids maneuvering ground forces. This type of system, with its size and capability, can accompany ground forces wherever they go.”The company, which is developing lightweight solutions designed so that forces on the battlefield can easily carry them, aims to have troops hit their targets with “ultimate precision” and at “large ranges in order to avoid collateral damage,” Mor said.Thousands of SMASH 2000 systems manufactured by Smart Shooter are in use by the IDF along the Gaza border, and hundreds more are in use by US special forces.
The SMASH 2000 gives troops a precision anti-drone system on their weapon with an attachable sighting device with built-in targeting algorithms that can track and hit drones and other airborne targets flying at high speed at ranges of up to 120 m. with the first shot.Mounted on a vehicle, the SMASH Hopper allows for the distance between the operator and target to expand or widen “even more than before, and is ideal for the protection of large, broad and dynamic areas such as borders – where you need to be able to control a large area and hit any wanted target fast and precisely,” Mor said.“You never know what the soldier might encounter during war,” and mounting the system on manned vehicles “is just the beginning... we would like to see it mounted on different platforms,” she added.Shir Ahuvia, VP product at Smart Shooter, told the Post that the company took the “same system” as SMASH 2000 and “put it on a remote-controlled station” that can be mounted on vehicles such as the Re’em and even on autonomous or robotic vehicles.Once mounted on the vehicle, the system can be controlled by the operator sitting inside the armored vehicle or at a distance of a few hundred meters.“The operator doesn’t have to leave the vehicle to shoot the target, be it a ground or aerial target,” she said, adding that “this increases survivability and not only the lethality of the soldier.”According to Ahuvia, the SMASH Hopper still has several rounds of testing to go through before it becomes operational, including designing and developing the system for remote-controlled vehicles.“The combination of a light fire control system with autonomous vehicles is definitely something we see for our products,” she said.