1087th Medium truck company is leading the Army's main effort in fielding prototype gun trucks for convoy escort/protection missions into Iraq. MPRI are training truck companies in counter ambush techniques.
Posted on 12/02/2003 9:03:30 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
December 2, 2003: The Q-Truck in Iraq- Army soldiers in Iraq are modifying their vehicles to carry additional weapons, usually the M2 .50-caliber machine gun (first used prior to World War II), the M249 SAW (a 5.56-millimeter machine gun), and the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher (firing 40-milimeter grenade rounds). The crew-served weapons are mostly going on the Humvees, (no surprise there), but some are also being placed on the M872 Heavy Equipment Trailers. This might sound unusual, but the trucks are large, can carry a lot of ammunition, and guerillas in Iraq might not suspect they are armed at first.
Such things are not new. In Vietnam, M113 armored personnel carriers were equipped with extra machine guns. Jeeps and trucks were also augmented with extra guns and armor. The major objective in this case is to get the guerillas attacking the supply lines to go for what they thought was a supply truck. Once pulled in, they get more than they bargained for. It is the same principle used by the heavily armed and disguised Q-ships of World Wars I and II, which operated against submarines. The intention is to deter attacks by creating doubt in the mind of the guerillas as to whether the soft target is really as soft as it appears to be.
How well will it work? Remains to be seen. Some guerillas never adapted, and ended up getting wiped out. Others did adapt, and forced the occupation forces to develop new tactics to adapt to the guerillas’ adaptation. - Harold C. Hutchison
Force protection is now provided by Army transportation units driving gun trucks—5-ton trucks modified with M-60 machine-gun mounts—with a truck in the front, middle and rear of each convoy. Each truck has a driver, assistant driver and a gunner who must stand in the back of each truck on the lookout for trouble.
1087th Medium truck company is leading the Army's main effort in fielding prototype gun trucks for convoy escort/protection missions into Iraq. MPRI are training truck companies in counter ambush techniques.
Bring em on!
Please complain about my gas guzzlin' SUV.
Semper Fi!
TS
Twins? Mmmmmmmm........Twins!?
Nah, haven't seen anything like that.
Twins.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................!
I drive the roads in Iraq everyday....as a contractor.
I have been out bymyself and with the army and in our own civilian gun ships.
They will attack tanks with RPGs usually this doesnt do anything but the main gun on the tank is to big to fire usually, with out to much colateral.
To much armor makes you slow and an easy target for IEDs. There comes a point that even the armor on a tank will not stand up to multiple 155 rounds buried in the road. ( I have seen the remains of this vehicle the turret was 100 feet away and the side track armor about the same distance.)
The humvees also get ambushed by guys hidding in buildins or the side of the road. Generally the army just pushes through the area but will some times come by for a second pass.
The problem is that the ambushers will run away as soon as they fire a mag or launch there RPG. So to stop them it comes down to being able to react quickly and put...........time to go
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