US Army Soldier creates " Ironman " Ammo carrier which allows him to deliver maximum rate of fire to the Bad Guys

Score one for the Iowa National Guard and especially Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski who got creative and solved a problem with his own ingenuity and desire to equip himself and his troops with "what works" - no multi-million dollar contract, no need to sink huge sums of $$$ into studies - This Soldier just thought it up and made it reality. Awesome.

Now the rest of the Army wants this simple piece of kit that will allow a soldier to put the maximum number of rounds down range. The Army needs to get busy and get as many of these as possible to the troops as they need it to take on the Terrorists on the battle field.

Kudos to the Iowa National Guard. Awesome use of the technology Dude !

Paging Jesse Ventura: Iowa Guard Builds Predator-Style Ammo Packs
By Andrew Tarantola, Gizmodo.com October 18, 2011

Remember that scene in the movie Predator, when Jesse Ventura is unleashing his M-134 mini-gun into the forest? It was being fed by an ammo box strapped to his back. Turns out, that wasn’t an actual piece of Army kit, at least until members of the Iowa National Guard created it themselves.

The National Guard division had been recently deployed to a forward operating base in Afghanistan and were issued Mk 48 machine guns when they arrived. The problem was, the belts of ammunition were extremely cumbersome and difficult for the gun’s operator to carry while on foot-patrol. The initial solution of chopping the belts into 50-round lengths and reloading constantly was abandoned after a harrowing 2.5 hour long firefight proved it untenable.

So, Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski welded two ammo boxes atop one another (with the upper case’s bottom removed), lashed them to an all-purpose ALICE pack frame, and mounted the feed chute assembly from a vehicle-mounted CROWS (Common Remote Operating Weapons Station) to the top of it. This allowed the gunner to carry a full load of ammo—500 rounds—unassisted. Even with ammo, the entire system weighed a mere 43 pounds.

The pack, dubbed The Ironman, proved so reliable in combat that Winkowski submitted the design to Army science advisers who also immediately recognized its value. Within 48 days, the Quick Reaction Cell of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) had created an improved, lighter-weight version of the pack.

As, Dave Roy, a current operations analyst at NSRDEC, explains,

We’ve already gotten email traffic from (one of) our science advisers that everybody in theater wants one of these — and by in theater, he means his specific area of operation, Regional Command East in Afghanistan — because word has spread. That (Iowa National Guard) unit is not the only unit on that FOB. As they’re walking around the FOB with that piece of kit, very senior people are taking a look at it. They recognize it as a game-changer.

While The Ironman is still a prototype at this stage, Roy hopes to have acquisition funding secured by early next year. [US Army]

Photo: 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, Iowa National Guard