In less than 80 days, the turret prototype on this Humvee was taken from sketched concept to hard-core assembly. The igloo-shaped structure is designed to wrap around and over the turret gunner, thereby minimizing the sniper threat. The protective prototype?s development and testing was motivated by the death of Airman 1st Class Leebernard Chavis, who was killed by sniper fire in October 2006.
First thing I thought when I saw that was,"Well, it's sure better than this for moving around in sniper-infested urban areas. And it really beats this one. And while this one is an improvement over the previous two:
...the one in the first picture above still provides a lot better overhead cover and reduces the area which a grenade can drop into the vehicle.
All of which is good. And I understand that the AF is kinda new to the whole operating in sniper-infested areas thing, which is one reason they might have taken this long to adapt.
And they maybe chose to do it themselves, because the Army system is still cumbrous.
But looking at it - something looked familiar. Like I'd seen it somewhere before. And then I realized it - there is someone else out there with a loooong history of operating in sniper-infested urban areas, fighting COIN-style enemies.
And they've already been down this road.
With the Nagman, the Kasman, the Nagmachon, and even armored bulldozers.
