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Small Arms Stabilization Unit to Solve SOF’s Critical Problem

Jan 22, 2021

photo illus. by Wikimedia- — A sniper prepares to lay down suppressive fire while his teammate moves to cover behind the next vehicle during the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Sniper Competition at Fort Bragg, N.C., Dec. 6.

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Special Operations Forces (SOF) Operators must be able to shoot with high accuracy. The US Army is prototyping a small arms stabilization unit as part of an effort to enhance a soldier’s aim by stabilizing a weapon’s barrel against unnecessary or unintended movement.

The Army is currently experimenting with the technology as part of its Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) effort. The Aim Control Enhancer (ACE), originally developed as part of US Special Operations Command’s now-abandoned ‘Iron Man’ suit effort, is currently undergoing evaluation “for possible use” with the NGSW.

The system, which attaches to the Picatinny rail that’s a standard feature of most military rifles, can best be described as a ‘mechanical isolator’ for a soldier’s support hand, according to Matt Angle, the electrical engineer who originally developed the system.

“I can prevent the barrel from moving in ways I don’t want it to,” Angle told taskandpurpose.com. “Basically, you grab the device, and there’s a mechanical linkage system that keeps the barrel still in certain ways. It doesn’t automatically aim, but the whole thing is closer to image stabilization in a camera lens — as your hand shakes, the system moves to keep the barrel still.”

How does it work? A user selects a target or a direction, and then the system holds the weapon in the proper orientation. This effort seeks to merely correct for the shaking of the weapon that is not controllable by the user.

The technology was originally developed under the moniker of a ‘small arms stabilization’ system under a 2017 SOCOM contract as part of the command’s Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS), better known as the ‘Iron Man’ suit.

The small arms stabilization system was one of several subsystems that the Pentagon flagged as mature enough for “further maturation and testing” when the TALOS program shut down in 2019. It was then reported that special operators field-tested07 an ultralight version of the TALOS body armor called the Lightweight Polyethylene (PE) Armor for Extremity Protection.