Customized Artillery Launcher Truck Cab Underscores Crew Protection.

AuthorErwin, Sandra I.

A custom-built truck cab, to be installed on Army and Marine Corps prototype artillery launchers, will serve as a test bed for determining whether it is possible to protect military crews against rocket launch debris and toxic fumes without adding excessive weight to the vehicle.

This wheeled artillery platform, called the high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS), is touted by Army and Marine Corps officials as an ideal weapon system for expeditionary forces who need to deploy on short notice and cannot afford to bring along heavy artillery. HIMARS has been in development for four years, but it is now gaining high-level attention because the Army is emphasizing the use of weapon platforms that are C-130 transportable. The HIMARS is based on a 5-ton truck chassis, which means it can fit on a C-130 medium-lift aircraft.

The HIMARS cab is a modified version of the basic truck steel cab used in the Army's family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV). Unlike the basic cab, it has special linings and reinforcements, designed to protect HIMARS crews from shrapnel, fumes and other hazards involved in launch operations. This platform fires both rockets and missiles.

The Army is buying eight HIMARS prototypes with the new cab. Two of them will be used by the Marine Corps, which recently joined the program. Four existing prototypes, which do not have the new cab, have been tested during the past two years--three of them at Fort Bragg, with the Army's 18th Airborne Corps. The fourth is used as an engineering test bed by the HIMARS prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, in Dallas.

Lockheed Martin is using FMTV chassis made by Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems, in Sealy, Texas. The cab work was subcontracted to O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, in Fairfield, Ohio. The company makes customized military and civilian armored trucks.

At O'Gara, the cab is stripped down to the bare shill and is rebuilt and lined with a lightweight synthetic armor material. The armored lining also replaces some of the windows. A set of louvers is installed over the windshield, for flash protection. The crew must close the louvers before munitions are fired. Otherwise, their eyes would be damaged by the glare, which is comparable to a welder's torch, said Earl Young, program manager for HIMARS at Lockheed Martin. A special poly-carbonate laminated glass is used for the windshield and windows.

The cab must be sealed completely, said Young in an...

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