Army adding heavier weapons to its trucks - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Army adding heavier weapons to its trucks

The Army and Marine Corps are equipping thousands of new medium and heavy cargo trucks to carry .50-caliber machine guns and even heavier defensive weapons. The trucks will be able to move without armed escorts, said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Sarah Langdon, spokeswoman for Multi-National Force-Iraq.

“The upgrades to the trucks bring along the capability of adding more weapons,” Langdon said. “If you are going somewhere where you need it, you can just throw up a .50-cal.”

The heaviest Army trucks may even get a vehicle-mounted version of the 7-ton Phalanx multibarrel weapon that protects U.S. warships from incoming missiles.

In 2005, the Army began modifying some of its cargo trucks — 2.5-ton Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, or FMTVs — to better protect their crews, adding armor and ring mounts. Since then, some 2,500 FMTVs, about half of the total in Iraq, have received ring mounts.

Last year, the Army decided many of its new trucks should come equipped with guns and ring mounts. It specified that each FMTV in the next batch of 8,400 vehicles would be built with a powered ring mount that could accommodate a manually operated .50-caliber gun or a remote-controlled turret such as the Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station.

Adding a ring mount to a cargo truck may create the need for a third crew member to man the weapon and manage the ammunition flow, said Dean Lockwood, an analyst with Forecast International, a Newtown, Conn.-based think tank.

While vehicle program managers were preparing for that, the Army’s gun buyers placed their first order for new .50-caliber weapons in at least three years, buying 2,691 of the $15,000 guns from General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products. The bill, which came to about $42 million, was paid through the 2007 emergency supplemental.

The service is buying another 1,924 guns in 2008.

An FMTV contract was awarded June 2 to BAE Systems and the trucks will begin to arrive next spring, according to Army and BAE officials.

According to the Army’s 2009 budget request, the service is planning to spend $472 million on .50-caliber guns between last year and 2013, and plans to buy between 5,000 and 6,000 a year until 2012 with the remainder in 2013.

“The Army is responding to what the troops have been asking for,” Lockwood said.

“As time goes by, we are adapting and learning,” said Army Lt. Col. Stacy Townsend, who is the executive officer for the Army’s force sustainment brigade in Kuwait. “We have looked at a variety of weapons for this, such as the .50-caliber, weapons such as the M240 machine guns and non-lethal lasers as a part of our protection posture.”

The Phalanx

The Army also has begun testing a 7-ton Raytheon Phalanx area weapon on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, or HEMTT A3.

Developed to protect Navy ships, the Phalanx spits out up to 4,500 rounds of 20mm tungsten bullets per minute, shooting down missiles, rockets, and mortar and artillery rounds. A version called the Centurion, mounted on a flat-bed trailer, protects several forward bases in Iraq.

The HEMTT-mounted Phalanx would still be used as a fixed-site defense weapon, but would be more mobile than the existing Centurion.

“The concept is that a Phalanx on a HEMTT A3 would be more movable from site to site to defend troop emplacements, garrisons or a power plant,” said John Eagles, Raytheon public affairs manager.