S.C. soldier designs new gun truck
Vehicle weighs more than 20 tons, has detachable gunners box
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
Instead of an M-16 rifle, Army Staff Sgt. James King is using his
welder to help U.S. troops fighting in Iraq.
A member of the Army Reserves 175th Maintenance Company,
headquartered at Fort Jackson, King is the primary designer of a
new gun truck aimed at better protecting U.S. convoys in
Iraq.
The truck currently is undergoing a seven-day road test in Iraq and
initial reports are good, Maj. Ricky Smith, the 175ths commander,
reported Wednesday.
So far, no one has shot at it and that is the effect we wanted
to scare the h--- out of the bad guys, Smith wrote in an e-mail to
The State.
Protecting convoys is a top priority of U.S. commanders. Troops
suffer about 100 casualties a month in insurgent attacks on
convoys.
Those losses have led some critics to say the Army doesnt have
enough armored vehicles or ground protection for its Iraqi
convoys.
The Air Force said Tuesday that it will haul more supplies on its
planes to help take some of the load off the convoys.
Kings design adds an armored box, bristling with guns, that can be
bolted onto the back of a heavy transport truck in a convoy. It is
much different than the gun trucks the Army has used for decades.
Those are quick, agile gun trucks designed to race up and down the
length of a convoy to meet attackers.
Kings gun truck recently unveiled at Camp Arifjan, where the
175th is stationed in Kuwait weighs more than 20 tons. The
vehicle originally was designed to haul a battle tank.
What makes Kings design unique is the armored gunners box can be
transferred to another truck in about 15 minutes.
The design and construction of the box was a joint venture between
the 175th and the Kellogg, Brown & Root weld shop at Camp
Arifjan.
Because of his experience in building smaller gun trucks, and in
welding and fabrication in his regular job as a military
technician, King was selected by Smith to lead the project.
It took Kings team, which included four welders, four weeks worth
of 12-hour days to design and build the box.
The hardest part was coming up with some of the materials to do it
with, King said.
Its just like everything else in this country; youve got to beg,
borrow and steal. We had the armor, but the gun rings we had to
find; the Kevlar we had to find and the exhaust we had to
find.
With its gun mounts about 13 feet above the ground, the box offers
soldiers a crows nest view of the area around a convoy.
You get a greater view and field of fire than you can with a
Humvee, said Chief Warrant Officer David Summerlin, who helped on
the project.
Added King, At close range, (attackers) will have to aim very
high, and by then, youll see them.
The walls of the box are protected on the side by several layers of
Kevlar. There are a few inches between the Kevlar and the sides of
the truck to absorb most of the impact and shrapnel if it is hit by
a rocket-propelled grenade, King said.
That part of the design has not been tested, King said. We wont
know until an RPG hits it.
The box is made of three-eighths-inch-thick steel plating, which
can stop most small-arms fire. The floor is reinforced with two
layers of the steel plating to protect against bombs.
The box is armed with one 40-mm and one .50-caliber machine gun. It
has room for two other gunners.
If the truck makes it past its first real-world road test in Iraq
this week, King and the others who worked on the project will
construct seven more boxes for the 7th Transportation Group.