Iowa guardsmen came up with an ammo-carriage system similar to the one used in the 1987 film "Predator." (1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, Iowa National Guard)
How does that saying go about figuring out a way to do something if you really need to do it? Something about necessity?
After a two-and-a-half-hour firefight in Afghanistan earlier this year in which three-man teams serving weapons struggled to stay together, the members of an Iowa National Guard division found a way to efficiently carry and feed ammo for their Mk 48 machine guns.
The soldiers with 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division tell Bob Reinert of the Army’s Soldiers magazine how they came up with an ammo pack similar to the one used by Jesse Ventura’s character in the 1987 movie “Predator.”
The similarity is no accident. The movie was talked about after the firefight and someone asked why a gunner couldn’t carry a combat load of ammo, the story reported.
Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski pursued the idea. He welded two ammunition cans together — one on top of another with the bottom removed from the top can — secured it to an ALICE frame and mounted the feed chute assembly from a vehicle-mounted CROW (Common Remote Operating Weapons Station). The pack allows the gunner to carry 500 rounds unassisted and weighs a mere 43 pounds, according to Gizmodo.
Based on the Iowa Guard's ammo pack, the Ironman system uses a MOLLE medium frame designed to carry up to 60 pounds. (David Kamm / Army)
A few pictures of the pack and a submission to Army science advisers has led to a prototype of the pack, dubbed the “Ironman” after the name of the task force.
Requests for the prototype started flooding in after word about the Ironman circulated in theater. Here’s how Dave Roy, a current operations analyst with NSRDC, described the demand:
“We’ve already gotten email traffic from (one of) our science advisers that everybody in theater wants one of these — and by in theater, he means his specific area of operation, Regional Command East in Afghanistan — because word has spread,” Roy said. “That (Iowa National Guard) unit is not the only unit on that FOB. As they’re walking around the FOB with that piece of kit, very senior people are taking a look at it. They recognize it as a game-changer.”
Check out Reinert’s story to learn more about the details of how the Quick Reaction Cell of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center came up with the prototype.
10 Comments
And I see alot of ALICE gear still used and that’s a interesting way to use a pack frame.
Isn’t it always the grunts on the ground who figure out an easier/better way of doing stuff!!!
Nothing new, this has been a concept for sometime, even in video games. Didn’t know it was going to be such a “take-off” all of a sudden.
Yea it’s nice to see that line infantry is getting good gear, but Natick either stole this design from Tyr Tactical or just failed to do any type of research on their own about an already existing product and wasted research and development time and funds on something that already existed.
http://kitup.military.com/2011/07/did-natick-rip-off-tyr-tactical.html
Gotta be a farmboy, where improvising and finding a better way to do things, “on the cheap” is a way of life. Too many scientists & engineers at Natick design by computer, and never worked with their hands…
BZ job well done.
Tyr Tactical. Look it up.
Natick clowns, Army PAO fools…….
When this pack made? One of my teamates made one in 2010 while in Southeast Afghanistian. It was fully functional Mk.48 mod. 0 7.62mm LWMG belt fed backpack system that held 500 rounds but instead of using a mollie pack he used a old school ruck sack frame and straps.
A few decades ago this m60 machine gunner and many more like him carried their share of the load, and a 81morter round to boot and all done with alice. Not knocking you, could have used some of the equipment you have today and im sure my dad and uncles could have used alice in the big one and a favorite uncle in korea too. Im just glad my son has had the use of todays equipment during his five deployments. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.
Great idea, if Natick wants to cut costs though I don’t see why they couldn’t lighten up the feed track by using an industrial hose/cable carrier similar to what is used on industrial automated machinery.