DSA 2024 – A fully safe firearm storage and access control system from SWS
Both the military and law enforcement worlds have the need to ensure fully safe firearm storage and access control, while reducing the time needed to soldiers and police officers to get their individual weapons and put them back into armoury. SWS of Malaysia is a company specialised in this field that proposed its systems at DSA in Kuala Lumpur
The name of the company, SWS Inntech SDN BHD, where the acronym stands for Smart Weapon Storage, says all, the core business of the Malaysian entity being exactly that.
Safety and accountability are the key factors, and to cope with those SWS developed a series of products that feature some common features to ensure that only the operator to whom the weapon is assigned can retrieve it; not only, the systems can also be programmed to verify when the weapon is back into storage, and should the slot remain void after the planned time it would automatically alert the armoury personnel. This is ensured using tagged weapons, handguns or rifles, fitted with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The system supports a 2 Factor Authentication, exploiting biometric validation and a pinpad, human machine interface coming in the form of a 7-inch LCD touch screen with biometric fingerprint scanner. Weapons retrieval can be programmed according to personnel tour of duty, and all transactions are duly recorded to allow full tracking of operations, allowing instant inventory check, electronic records and reports being automatically stored. Each weapon is locked individually thanks to a stainless steel shutter mechanism; should the system fail, a backup battery ensures 12 hours of continuous operation, a manual override can be activated either at the rack itself, or remotely by the armoury controller; the cabinets have a built-in Gigabit interface and can be linked to a control centre through a LAN (Local Area Network) or optionally via wireless communications such as 5G. The steel cabinet is protected against tampering, instant alarm being sent to the control officer.
Based on those concepts SWS developed different models, that can be provided as standard, the company being ready to adapt its systems to customers’ requirements. The SWS-MPS30 is a Multi Pistol Storage system for 30 pistols, with individual drawers, a multi-storage model being also available. For rifles the SWS-MRS10 can host up to 10 weapons, while the SWS-EMS series allows storage of up to 120 pistols or 40 rifles, or a combination of the two. Here green/red LED lights on each slot indicate the status, the cabinet having transparent windows reinforced with a stainless steel grid. Beside the weapons, SWS also developed safe storage systems for ammunition and grenades, providing automated and accountable systems for the whole equipment of a police officer or military operator. These are built to withstand temperatures up to 1,000 °C, a bullet counter system allowing real time tracking of ammunition being capable to identify spent cases. Standard cabinets are powered by 110-230 AC, have power consumption between 120 and 230 W, and weigh between 400 and 450 kg without weapons. The latest member of SWS products is a cabinet for explosives, which should be soon tested in Singapore.
Why not in Malaysia? That’s because the launch customer for SWS products is not national, the first contract having been inked last year with the Singapore Police, Singapore military being expected to follow soon. The first customer demonstrated SWS capability to adapt its systems to customers’ requirements, as the Singapore Police is used to store weapons and ammunition together, therefore a specific cabinet was designed to answer that requirement.
Not only the solutions adopted by SWS enhance accountability and safety, but they also required a lesser number of armoury personnel as well as reducing withdraw/return time.
Photos by P. Valpolini at DSA
