New System Steadies Platform-Mounted Weapons

TALON

Photo: Paradigm SRP

GOODWATER, Nev. — A new weapon mount for vehicle, watercraft or helicopter-mounted heavy machine guns eliminates shaking, allowing better accuracy for operators firing remotely.

The TALON ASP, manufactured by Paradigm SRP of Houston, is a gyro-stabilized shooting platform that works with .338 or .50 caliber sniper rifles. A second version works with M2A1 .50 caliber heavy machine guns.

The company demonstrated an early version of the TALON that works only with rifles for National Defense at a shooting range in the Nevada desert prior to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Driving with a rifle attached to the mount and placed on top of an all-terrain vehicle, the viewscreen kept a steady picture of the landscape while on the move over a rock-strewn road. After switching off the system, the picture shook violently.

The rifle was operated from the passenger side of an ATV.

“Our goal has never been to make a machine gun mount. It has been precision,” Todd DeGidio, CEO and founder of the company said in an interview. The retired special operator and police helicopter pilot said seeing gunners using bungee cords to secure themselves in aircraft inspired him to develop the system. It can be operated from the safety of a co-pilot seat.

The first rifle-only TALON is being considered by several foreign forces, which DeGidio could not disclose, save one, France’s National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, an elite counterterrorism unit which is currently having it certified for use aboard its aircraft.

“What we’re doing is giving [snipers] a way to counteract some physics that are problematic in moving-vehicle shooting and doing it with precision,” he said.

Since it is for remotely controlled weapons, the system adds protection. It could be mounted on an armored vehicle in either military or law enforcement scenarios so shooters don’t expose themselves, he said.

The video tracker images can be sent to higher headquarters “so the command center sees exactly what the sniper sees and they can give the green light,” he added.

The system takes two to three days to learn, with the younger generation who grew up with video games normally catching on much quicker as the gun is remotely operated with a joystick, DeGidio said. 

Topics: Munitions Technology, Strategic Weapons, Defense Department