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Why don't they have armor shields covering the sides, front, and rear of the soldier manning the top weapon?

Weight issues and stability come to mind. I never did think much of this when I was in.

Because to rotate and elevate such a thing you generally need a powered mount, requires more maintenance, requires reinforced structure for support and so on. And of course it all costs a lot more, and since the vast majority of HMMWV's where and are intended for rear area work its not something the US Army had seen the need to invest a lot of money in.

Now that there getting use heavily for patrol work in Iraq the US Army is going the whole nine yards and has ordered a couple extra thousand fully armored HMMWV's, which can though don't always have an armored turret.

A powered mount also requires more training to use and I expect is slower to react to a threat than is a M2 on a ring mount.

Howedar wrote:A powered mount also requires more training to use and I expect is slower to react to a threat than is a M2 on a ring mount.

Even on the ring mount, typically your crew-served weapon will have a T&E on it (With the possible exception of an M249), that's pretty damned slow to react in and of itself. I never understannd why they made up put that thing on for anything but a Mk19, except for travel locking.

What is a T&E?

*EDIT* Oh, I suppose it's something like traverse and elevation.

Howedar wrote:What is a T&E?

*EDIT* Oh, I suppose it's something like traverse and elevation.

You get a cookie.

Though, with a flick of a pin, you can disengage the T&E and go free style. Depends on how and what your shooting at.

So it's some sort of system that controls elevation and traverse...

A bunch of gears or something?

Here ya go,





Should be noted that its in mils and not degrees. This one is for the M2 and MK 19. There is a smaller one for the M60/M240.

For vehicle mounts, there is a adapter that goes from the base of the mount up to the rear of the gun where you put the T&E.

Looks like a real pain in the ass.

Howedar wrote:Looks like a real pain in the ass.

Not really, though its designed for use with a tripod. A T&E makes a automatic weapon very accurate. The dials are for minute adjustments (each click is a mil). It takes practice and training to get good with it but it really makes an automatic weapon very effective.

On a vehicle mount, it makes less sense unless you're dug in in defense or are waiting in ambush but on the move its next to worthless.

The T&E also makes predetermined targets available for gun crews by having registered targets with X left or right and Y up or down on the dial.