MAPMAKERS TECHNOLOGY REFERENCE
Sea PROTECTOR RS4
The Sea PROTECTOR RS4 is Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s maritime version of the PROTECTOR remote weapon system. It combines a stabilized remote weapon mount with electro-optical sensors and digital fire control, allowing an operator to observe, track, and engage targets from a protected position inside the vessel.
The naval configuration is designed specifically for the saltwater environment and can integrate with a ship’s bridge, combat, sensor, and defensive systems. Current Sea PROTECTOR systems support weapons including 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm, and 12.7 mm machine guns and 40 mm automatic grenade launchers. The RS4 family also supports counter-uncrewed-aircraft missions when integrated with appropriate radar and fire-control sensors.
Technical basis
- Type: stabilized remote weapon station
- Manufacturer: Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace
- Environment: maritime / naval
- Weapon compatibility: includes 12.7 mm heavy machine guns
- Sensors: high-resolution daylight camera, thermal imaging, and laser rangefinding
- Stabilization: four-axis Detached Line of Sight architecture
- Control: remotely operated from within the vessel
- Integration: bridge, combat-management, radar, sensor, and defensive systems
- Counter-UAS capability: supported through sensor and fire-control integration
- Maritime adaptation: corrosion-resistant naval configuration with an integrated sensor-cleaning system
Mapmakers configuration
In Contact!, The Shellback carries a Sea PROTECTOR-derived remote weapon station armed with an M2 .50-caliber machine gun.
The installation is adapted to the yacht rather than treated as a stock naval fit. The mount rides on a retractable mast that can be raised for an unobstructed firing and sensor field and lowered when not required. Raising the structure intrudes into the geometry of the yacht’s primary radar, degrading part of that radar picture and requiring the bridge to shift greater reliance to its secondary set.
The system is operated remotely from the bridge. Its stabilization allows the weapon and sighting system to track independently of the yacht’s roll and pitch, but it does not eliminate the practical limits imposed by vessel motion, target motion, geometry, and background.
Story role
Sea PROTECTOR gives The Shellback something very different from its manually operated .50-caliber mounts and its M101A1-derived deck gun: a stabilized, remotely controlled weapon that can observe and engage a small moving target without exposing a gun crew on deck.
That capability matters less because it makes the yacht more heavily armed than because it gives Chief another graduated option. The system allows him to remove the surveillance drone without escalating directly against the approaching boats.