AN/TWQ-1 Avenger - Variants

Variants

Boeing/Shorts Starstreak Avenger

Boeing teamed with Shorts Brothers PLC to offer the Avenger system modified by replacing 1 Stinger pod with a pod of 4 Shorts Starstreak Hyper-velocity laser-guided missiles in the hopes of attracting a U.S. Army contract under the Forward Area Air Defense System Line-of-Sight Rear (FAADS-LOS-R) program. Test installation was carried out in mid-1990 and firing trials followed from mid-1991 in the U.K. Starstreak would complement the Stinger by improving the overall systems ability to deal with low hovering helicopters which frequently do not provide enough contrast for lock-on by infrared guided missiles. Starstreak also has the ability to be used against un-armored and lightly armored ground vehicles.

Boeing/Matra Guardian

In the 1990s Boeing teamed with Matra of France to offer the Avenger modified by the substitution of standard triple launcher boxes for Matra Mistral missiles in place of the quadruple Stinger pods of the standard Avenger. One demonstrator vehicle was built in 1992 and test firings took place in France. The project was dropped around 1997.

Avengers in Iraq

Due to the lack of airborne threat in Iraq, and the pressing need for ground assets for combat roles such as convoy protection, the Avenger has been pressed into this role. The FLIR/laser rangefinder combined with the .50 cal machine gun has proven very effective, but is limited by no-fire zones, particularly to the front of the vehicle. A program was instituted to remove one of the missile pods and move the machine gun to that position to enable a 360° field of fire. This upgrade also increased the ammunition capacity to 650 rounds.

Avenger DEW

Another potential variant proposed by Boeing is an Avenger with a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW). Boeing completed an initial test of a 1 kilowatt laser mounted where the right missile pod would be. The M3P .50 cal has been replaced by the M242 Bushmaster as its close defense weapon.

Avenger Multi-Role Weapon System

Test firing demonstrations took place in 2004 of this variant modified by re-locating the M3P machine gun over the turret cab to allow a 360-degree field of fire, ready-use machine gun ammunition stowage increased to 600 rounds and the option to substitute launchers for 2 FGM-148 Javelin missiles in place of 1 Stinger pod.

Other Variants

Boeing have proposed that the Avenger PMS turret could be mounted on other vehicles such as the Unimog truck, BV-206 all-terrain vehicle, M113 APC, and M548 tracked cargo carrier as well as being used as a stationary ground mount on a pallet for defense of static targets. The Avenger PMS has been demonstrated with a mock-up of two 70 mm helicopter-type rocket pods carrying a total of 36 rockets to give the system greater multi-mission utility. Other missiles such as the Bofors RBS 70/Bolide have been proposed for use on the Avenger PMS.