Tow Buggies!
Now this looks fun.
Photo: Master Corporal Richard Lessard, Garrison Petawawa; Master Corporal Matthew Tower, Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Canadian Armed Forces
The above shows an experiment by the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (3 RCR), using Polaris MRZR ATVs as weapon carriers mounting TOW anti-tank missiles, Heckler & Koch GMG 40mm grenade machine guns (Designated as the C16 Close Area Suppression Weapon, or CASW), and assorted GPMGs, at Petawawa last month.
Photo: Master Corporal Richard Lessard, Garrison Petawawa; Master Corporal Matthew Tower, Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Canadian Armed Forces
Photo: Master Corporal Richard Lessard, Garrison Petawawa; Master Corporal Matthew Tower, Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Canadian Armed Forces
Photo: Master Corporal Richard Lessard, Garrison Petawawa; Master Corporal Matthew Tower, Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Canadian Armed Forces
Such vehicles could prove useful in a fast-moving RDF scenario, especially in Third World countries ala Kolwezi, a sort of modern version of the old 106mm recoilless rifle-armed M151 Mutt.
A simple concept is still well-loved in out-of-the-way parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America:
Now that is a good ambush position that American anti-armor teams of the 1950s and 60s will easily recognize.
And, don’t forget, the Marines swapped out their 106s for TOWs on their M151s back in the mid-1980s, so this is nothing new.
Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Regiment, fire a jeep-mounted tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided (TOW) heavy anti-tank weapon during Combined Arms exercises Five and Six. Wires used to guide the TOW missile can be seen extending from the barrel of the weapon, 5/1/1983 NARA 330-CFD-DM-ST-83-09020
Those chocolate chips! U.S. Marines drive an M-151 Light Utility Vehicle from a Utility Landing Craft (LCU) to shore during the multinational joint service Exercise BRIGHT STAR’85. The vehicle is armed with a BGM71 Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missile launcher, 8/1/1985 NARA 330-CFD-DF-ST-86-07566
Of course, with such light-skinned vehicles, they are risky as hell, both in terms of offering no protection against any sort of incoming fire or shrapnel and in the basic fact that these will usually be driven by a 19-year-old gassed up on Rip Its and Sabaton. Plus, with all that extra top weight on vehicles already prone to rollover…yikes.