CROWS The Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station program , ( CROWS or CROWS II ) is an American remote weapon station that provides the operator with the ability to acquire and engage targets while inside a vehicle , protected by its armor . It is designed to mount on a variety of vehicle platforms and supports the MK19 Grenade Machine Gun , . 50 Caliber M2 Machine Gun , M240B Machine Gun , and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon . Suppliers for the CROWS program . The first supplier for the CROWS program was Recon Optical ( Barrington , IL , USA ) with their RAVEN SRWS product . After an open solicitation Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace ( Kongsberg , Norway and Johnstown , PA , USA ) won the CROWS II contract with a variant of their M151 PROTECTOR , which is also used on the Stryker M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicle . KONGSBERG received a frame - contract of more than 1 billion USD for the delivery of up to 6 , 500 CROWS systems to the US Army and a first purchase order exceeding 300 million USD As of October 2009 , the framework contract has been almost completely converted to fixed contracts . At the very end of 2009 the agreement was extended to include 10 , 349 systems CROWS specification highlights . The CROWS is composed of two parts : the mount which is fixed to the exterior of the vehicle and the control group . The mount is capable of 360 degree rotation and −20 to + 60 degree elevation . It is gyro - stabilized . It accepts a variety of crew - served weapons , including the M2 . 50 - cal Machine Gun , the Mk19 40 - mm Automatic Grenade Machine Gun , the M240B 7 . 62 mm Machine Gun and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon . The sensor unit includes a daylight video camera , a thermal imager for night operations and an eye - safe laser rangefinder . It is also furnished with a fully integrated fire control system that provides ballistic correction . The weight of the weapon station varies accordingly due to different armament modules : light , standard ( including the naval version ) , and for CROWS II . The CROWS control group mounts inside the vehicle ( behind the driver ' s seat on the Humvee ) . It includes a display , switches and joystick to provide full remote control of the weapon system . This enables the fighting crew to operate from inside armored combat vehicles , while still carrying out patrols , acquiring targets , and firing a variety of weapons more efficiently . The first RAVEN units as part of the first CROWS contract were fielded in 2004 in Iraq , employed by special forces , military police , infantry and transport units . So far , more than 200 units have been fielded . The XM153 CROWS II has been delivered in huge quantities and more than a thousand systems are fielded . It has been employed on M1 Abrams main battle tank s , various versions of the Humvee , Buffalo MRVs , RG - 31 Nyala s , RG - 33 s , the Army ' s M1126 Stryker APC , and was soon integrated into the MATV s , JERRVs , Caiman , and MaxxPro . By September 2013 , the U . S . Army had over 8 , 000 CROWS systems in use . The new CROWS III incorporates a laser dazzler to temporarily blind suspicious individuals rather than needing to open fire , additional cameras on the side and rear of the turret to expand situational awareness without needing to rotate the turret , and a laser pointer to mark objects that is only visible to night vision equipment . The larger version of CROWS has also been equipped with an FGM - 148 Javelin missile launcher .