Military sources said specialists from the U.S. Air Force and other
units designed a crude armored turret to protect crews from sniper fire.
They said the effort was launched in October 2006 after the killing of a
U.S. air man assigned to operate the turret of his armored M1116 HMMWV, or
Humvee, vehicle.
The new turret was designed from components cannibalized from junked
military vehicles. In March 2007, the sources said, the remote turret design
began initial production.
"We believe this new turret design solves many or all of the
vulnerabilities that earlier designs have missed," Col. Gregory Marston, an
air force officer, said.
Within 80 days, the sources said, the team assembled a bubble-shaped
structure protected by ballistic glass panels and steel. The result was said
to have marked an improvement over other remote turrets.
The structure does not hamper the rotation of the machine-gun turret and
ensures line-of-sight by the operator. The sources said the prototype turret
has been approved by the U.S. Central Command Air Force.
The sources said 60 operational turrets would be deployed with the U.S.
Air Force Battlelab. They said the first five turrets have already arrived
in Iraq.
"Right now, there's no standardization in terms of up-armored Humvee
turret designs," Marston said. "People have altered them a lot of them on
their own, but they still had problems."
