Remote weapons system deployed at Oak Ridge bomb plant

National Nuclear Security Administration officials demonstrated one of the weapon systems Thursday at the Y-12 firing range, where it has been undergoing testing and evaluation for about three years.

“When you put the cross hairs on the target, that’s where the bullet is going,” said Jean “John” Burleson, who heads Wackenhut Corp.’s 520-guard force at Y-12.

The weapons platform can be mounted on a pole or on an armored SUV. Both were on display. And it can be outfitted with different weapons — everything from an M-16 to a grenade launcher.

On Thursday, an M-249 machine gun accurate up to 1,100 meters was used.

Jerry Paul, NNSA’s principle deputy administrator, called it a “first-of-its-kind technology for providing security that is necessary in a new era of protecting our nuclear weapons complex.”

“We are giving our special police officer forces the ability to stand off from the adversary force,” he said. “(And) the ability to place a high degree of firepower on that force without compromising the safety of our own fighting force.”

Operators can be in relative safety up to a mile away, controlling one or more weapons with a joystick. Each box has three camera lenses — a scoping lens, a wide angle lens and a thermal infrared lens for seeing through smoke or darkness.

“As far as maintenance, we haven’t had to do anything to it,” firing range instructor Steve Lynn said. “Every time we come down here all we have to do is plug it up and hit the button. It opens up, put a weapon in it and start shooting.”

Paul wouldn’t say when the system will be deployed to other nuclear weapons installations, although the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico was the original developer of the system.

He also declined to say how many units have been installed around Y-12, which makes components for every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal, retires warheads and is the nation’s primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium.

“I can’t tell you locations. I can’t tell you how many. But I can tell you it will be ample,” Paul said, saying the NNSA intends to aggressively use new technology to guard its installations.

“I don’t see this as a way to reduce the number of guards,” he added. “It is a force multiplier, not a replacement.”

Bill Brumley, the NNSA Y-12 manager, said some guards have taken to the weapon system faster than others. “It actually depends somewhat on age,” he said. “Those of us that are older and didn’t grow up with video games and joysticks, it takes a little longer.”

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Y-12: http://www.y12.doe.gov/