The Ironman ammo back pack is another example of American Ingenuity.
www.spacewar.com...
Bringing peace through superior fire power, the men of The 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division,
Iowa National Guard (another group of Hero's), needed a way to quickly reload their Mk-48. If your unfamiliar with the Mk-48
, see the video below.
That's when Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski, a great man of Winged Polish Husaria descent
, came up with this idea, a modified ALICE with MOLLE.
"When we first arrived in theater in late October (2010), we were issued the Mk 48 7.62 mm machine guns," Winkowski said. "This was a new piece of
equipment for us, and we struggled to come up with a solution for carrying and employing ammunition for it due to our small size and the inability to
have a designated ammo bearer, as is common doctrine with the M240B. The ammunition sacks that came with it made it too cumbersome and heavy to carry
over long, dismounted patrols and especially when climbing mountains. Initially, we came up with using 50-round belts and just reloading constantly,
which led to lulls of fire and inefficiency.
So Winkowski grabbed an old ALICE (all-purpose lightweight individual carrying equipment) frame, welded two ammunition cans together - one atop the
other after cutting the bottom out of the top can - and strapped the fused cans to the frame. To that he added a MOLLE (modular, lightweight
load-carrying equipment) pouch to carry other equipment. "We wondered why there wasn't some type of dismounted (Common Remote Operating Weapons
Station) that fed our machine guns instead of a mini-gun as portrayed in the movie," Winkowski said.
"So, I decided to try it using the feed chute assembly off of the vehicle CROWS. We glued a piece of wood from an ammo crate inside the ammo cans to
create the decreased space necessary so the rounds would not fall in on each other. "My Mark 48 gunners, Spc. Derick Morgan and Spc. Aaron McNew, who
also had input to the design and evaluation, took it to the range and tested it, and even with its initial shortcomings, it was much better than the
current TTP (tactics, techniques and procedures) we employed.
On Feb. 26, 2011, our prototype 'Ironman' pack even saw its first combat use by Spc. McNew when our squad was ambushed by up to 50 fighters in a river
valley, and it worked great!"
After attaching pictures of the prototype to a request for information, Winkowski gave it to forward-deployed science advisers from the U.S. Army
Research, Development and Engineering Command.
The request landed on the desk of Dave Roy, a current operations analyst in the Quick Reaction Cell of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and
Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, military deputy's office.
"We looked at it," Roy recalled. "My first reaction was, 'Wow, that's cool.' I thought it was great."
In his 21 years as a Soldier, he had seen his share of ingenious solutions to problems.
"Our doctrine encourages Soldiers to think for themselves," Roy said. "That's why we're so effective on the battlefield. One of the things that makes
us so effective against our opponents throughout history is the fact that we recognize the value of the doctrine, but we are not slaves to it."
Roy knew that there was no time to waste, because Soldiers on the ground needed a solution as quickly as NSRDEC could get it to them.
He consulted with Natick experts in prototypes, load carriage, machining and fabrication. Forty-eight days after the request was received, and after
inspecting and measuring the Soldier's original, QRC had a prototype of the "High-Capacity Ammunition Carriage System" back in theater.
"I've dubbed it the 'Ironman,' because the unit in the field that developed the initial design is from the Iowa National Guard," said
Roy, "and they are considered Task Force Ironman."
May G_D Bless our troops and American Ingenuity.
Violater1 out.
edit on 2-5-2012 by Violater1 because: (no reason given)
By the way OP, I see the video says MK48 S.A.W. so that answered my question.
