Land Mobility Technologies (LMT), a subsidiary of Denel Land Systems, has developed a system that retracts a weapon station so it sits partially inside the vehicle, with the rest of it concealed under an armoured clamshell cover on the vehicle's roof.

The Meerkat uses an all-electric mechanism to raise and lower the Denel Mechatronics SD-ROW weapon station, which can be armed with a machine gun of up to 7.62 mm calibre or Denel's new 20 mm iNkunzi Strike automatic support weapon. Smoke grenade launchers can be fitted to the clamshell cover, which splits in two to slide to either side when the weapon station is elevated.

The Meerkat mechanism weighs 350 kg, with the SD-ROW adding about 110 kg, depending on what weapon is fitted.

LMT says this makes it small and light enough, and sufficiently modest in its power requirements (24 V, 600 W peak), to be fitted on most light armoured vehicles, large SUVs, and pick-ups.

The complete elevation/retraction cycle takes 25 seconds. LMT says this should allow for effective response to surprise attacks, given the SD-ROW's 80°/sec traverse and rapid target designation system.

The Meerkat was displayed mounted on an LMT L13 patrol vehicle and armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun at the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) show that was at Waterkloof Air Force Base outside Pretoria on 14-16 September 2016.