I am in love.

Oct 25, 2005 05:05




It's called the Ultra AP (armored patrol) and it's meant to handle the problems faced by IED's or roadside bombs.  The Hummer was not designed for that duty or for insurgent warfare.  Not to mention, the design is almost 25 years old.

They started with a Ford F-350 4x4 and then proceeded based on suggestions from troops.  The crew compartment is one of those things that is largely common sense, but yet turns out to be sooooooo rediculously awesome.  The crew doesn't sit in the standard 2x2 position, but rather in a 1x2x1 set up.  The driver sits on the centerline of the vehicle facing front, the passengers sit side by side facing 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and the rear crew member sits facing backwards, or standing in the ring-mount.  This configuration gives them 360 degree visability at all times while placing them as far away as possible from the wheels, the only part of the vehicle that ever actually contacts a mine.  Then the entire cab is wrapped in a "blast buckett," an up-armored tortoise shell-like enclosure.  There is even room left for a cargo bed and storage areas along the flanks.

This is basically the armored vehicle I have been dreaming up for the last 21 years.  I hope I someday get to cruise the streets of some far-off place in one of these bad boys!
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