Video: Motorcade SUVs with miniguns in the trunk

zuzu

#1 – 9:00 AM January 19, 2009

If you're going to hire Machete to kill the bad guy, you'd better make damn sure the bad guy isn't you.

Rob Beschizza

#2 – 9:00 AM January 19, 2009

Something about this video makes me want to watch an episode of Airwolf.

meerkat

#3 – 9:25 AM January 19, 2009

That reminds me of video I saw years ago of a briefcase mp5 - there is something awesomely excessive about it all.

Bob Doles Communist Doppelganger

#4 – 9:49 AM January 19, 2009

Haven't they fired one of these on Mythbusters?

zuzu

#5 – 9:55 AM January 19, 2009

That reminds me of video I saw years ago of a briefcase mp5 - there is something awesomely excessive about it all.

Marcel

#6 – 10:36 AM January 19, 2009

Okay, when you say 'minigun', I expect to see a small type of gun. What I see in the video, is a Hellmachine capable of turning a crowd into a pool of blood and gore in a matter of seconds.

7.62mm you say? Wow! They will go right through you at short distances. Maybe the idea is to be able to hit multiple marks with one bullit.

If that motorcade goes through your neighbourhood, be somewhere else.

Bob Doles Communist Doppelganger

#7 – 10:43 AM January 19, 2009

This seems like overkill for just about any situation the presidential convoy is likely to encounter, but I suppose it could be of use if the convoy was actually attacked by well-armed paramilitary types out on the highway or something.

I know that when I'm hanging out in the wasteland raiding passing convoys, I tend to avoid anyone with a gun that can fire 60 rounds a second.

Jeff

#8 – 10:51 AM January 19, 2009

Okay, when you say 'minigun', I expect to see a small type of gun.

They're called minigun because they don't fire 20mm rounds like the Vulcan. Compared to a Vulcan, this is a small gun...

Seeing a Vulcan fire is an assume experience. A friend of mine described it as "projectile vomiting bullets," which seemed very apt. At night, it fires so fast that the tracers make it look like it's shooting a thin stream of fire.

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 10:57 AM January 19, 2009

New president line: "Is that a minigun in your trunk, or you're just happy to see me?"

Marcel

#10 – 11:27 AM January 19, 2009

#Jeff:

Anything firing 20mm rounds goes beyond my personal definition of a gun.

Tensegrity

#11 – 11:31 AM January 19, 2009

This seems like overkill for just about any situation the presidential convoy is likely to encounter

a) attackers firing from cover, either behind a vehicle or inside a building
b) a truckbomb or other vehicle intent on ramming the motorcade, even a small airplane

grimc

#12 – 11:55 AM January 19, 2009

They already have something they use when the motorcade needs to travel through areas where a minigun would come in handy: It's called Marine One.

johnnyaction

#13 – 12:50 PM January 19, 2009

Glorious Overkill this is and arguably a necessary deterrent, at least to go grocery shopping in DC.

Small arms (.50 cal and below), larger arms and explosives are ridiculously easy to obtain/make in or out of this country if you want. Using them in an organized manner and getting close enough to the POTUS is an entirely different manner.

There are enough homegrown "terrorists", separatists, white supremacists and mis-guided patriots to warrant serious measures to protect the POTUS.

We've had anarchist crackpots in our country for 100+ years and arguably our country was founded by off-kilter rebels.

Personally, I would like to see machine shop ownership and spot inspections take place. Why smuggle anything into the US when you can open up a machine shop and build it?

PaulR

#14 – 1:41 PM January 19, 2009

I bet that the SUV accelerates at double the rate after firing that minigun for a minute or two. 8,000 bullets must weigh a ton!

LightningRose

#15 – 2:21 PM January 19, 2009

Bob Dole, #4 - More than once.

mdh

#16 – 2:45 PM January 19, 2009

I believe the idea of such overkill is to get the bad guys to duck for *just* long enough to evacuate the VIP.

Anonymous Anonymous

#17 – 9:50 PM January 19, 2009

Personally, I would like to see machine shop ownership and spot inspections take place. Why smuggle anything into the US when you can open up a machine shop and build it?

Yeah dude... nothing like turning the U.S.A. into a police state to quell your Hollywood Die-Hard terrorist fantasies. What a piece of work, you combine the ugliest parts of right-wing paranoia with the stupidest parts of left-wing firearm hysteria. Yikes.

Oh, and I bet anything that the Secret Service doesn't use these things:

1. Seems as likely to accidentally kill the president as protect him from anything.

2. Once of the things that the Secret Service is supposed to be paranoid of is a police officer, National Guard, or Secret Service agent killing the president. Good luck trying to stop a mole or disgruntle SS agent armed with one of these.

3. It just seems a bit silly.

Anonymous Anonymous

#18 – 5:14 AM January 20, 2009

Growing up in DC, my friends and I knew all about the 'war wagons' and their contents. Now do a story about the pop-up turrets in the lawns of the State Department, and my teenage fantasies will be complete...

zenbeatnik

#19 – 8:30 AM January 20, 2009

@grimc: "It's called Marine One."

Actually, that designation applies only to the VIP helo, and only when the President is on board. Just like Air Force 1 is not the plane, it's the flight number with the Prez on board.

The attack helos in the air today are US Army.

cha0tic

#20 – 8:36 AM January 20, 2009

I bet all that hot brass spilling down the front plays havoc with the paintwork.

Johnny One Spur

#21 – 11:16 AM January 20, 2009

With the "sunroof" doors open, though, it looks to me like you couldn't turn the gun 360 degrees, but you're limited to a small arc front (or back, if that's the way you popped up). But maybe the deal is they provide shielding for the shooter...

Tensegrity

#22 – 12:19 PM January 20, 2009

@21 I think the whole gun is on a turret and the panels rotate with it.