William, some of the questions you had for me were already answered but I'll give my 2 cents. I have led many convoys, patrol's, etc without having an FBCB2. I had one in my truck in A-stan at first but that was burnt up in an IED. Afterwards I went without one, but 3 out of 4 trucks in my platoon had the FBCB2 and I would be surprised if not all HMMWV'S have them nowdays. The picture taken in kandahar has the Satcom anteena on the hood. One thing about that anteena is that is was a pain in the ass having it stay together. It was always coming loose from it's mount and was rigged with tape and 550 cord (thin rope) just to keep it in one piece.

The 504th Parachute infantry regiment is known as "The devils in baggy pants". 1st battalion are called the "Red Devils" ,2nd is called the White Devils" and 3rd battalion were called the "blue devils" (deactivated). One thing to point out is that only 3 platoons from the entire 2nd battalion were based out of kandahar during OEF6. The rest of the Battalion was in eastern A-stan around the city of Khwost. Those platoons were 1st and 3rd platoons Dco and 3rd platoon Aco along with Dco commander and HQ element. Collectively we were known as "Team Delta" attached to the 3rd Bn 319th Airborne field artillery regiment which was attached the the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Within a Delta company platoon you have two MK-19 and two 50cal machine guns. 99% of the time the 50cal truck will be the lead vehicle. This truck is most often led by a staff sergeant. Our normal order of movement was 50cal truck, mk19 truck, 50 cal and mk-19 bringing up the rear. Hope this helps.

Jeremy
Thanks for taking the time to give me your answers to the questions I posted. Jeff also thought that this was the way of things, that the FBCB2 - also called a Blue Force Tracker or BFT were in every vehicle. The satcom is a flimsy looking thing. In your "downtown Kandihar" photo did the boys have it out or was it always out like that. I have recently posted an image (M1114) looking forward through the front windscreen, and there seems to be a combo antenna there. It looks like a SINCGARS and a Satcom built together and the lads look like they are traveling with them open.
We are having some talk about the SF HMMWV above.Have you ever seen an SF vehicles in the field (if that is not confidential). What do YOU think about the armored turret in the picture? Could this be an electrically driven turret like the Brits use? If what you said before about having to be almost level to turn the weapons ring imagine having to turn that!
Some SF HMMWV's along with the French and Brits.
Thankyou for your 2 cents

William, above is a picture of one of my platoons truck with a Satcom or what we referred to also as a "TACSAT" anteena mounted on the hood.. This is in the open position. I have the two main pieces circled. The part circled as number 2 on the bottom would fold upwards and then the part circled number 1 on top would fold down over that, into the closed position. It would be about the width of a soda can and twice as long. As far as your picture from inside the HMMWV the satcom looks like it is a little bigger than what we used, but it appears to only be a satcom anteena. With the singcars anteena they came in 2 long pieces which needed screwed together in the middle, alot of times during long movements the anteena would unscrew itsself and fall of from all the bouncing around, which cut down significantly on the range of the sincgars.

Surprisingly the SF team that was stationed at Kandahar lent out one of their GMV's for awhile. 1st platoons, platoon sergeant was friends with some SF guys and thats how he acquired it. Probably the only time a conventional unit will have use of a GMV. With the picture you posted of the SF truck with the armored turret, It probably has the turret crank to make the turret easier to turn. I first saw the "cranks" in use around summer 2005. But I'm sure some of the older M1114 and 99% of the M966 dont have them yet.

Jeremy
Thanks for the picture and the explanation. It sounds like your communication systems were problematic, not designed for the intended use? The wire running across the length of the hood seems precarious as well.
On the HMMWV that is in the picture ( almost ready to roll over), does it have the large whip antennae on the rear of the vehicle as well? SINCGARS? I'm interested in the two piece antenna you have mentioned for the SINCGARS, would this be out and attached to the vehicle all the time?
I have hunted the internet and I have never again seen the pictures of the "Misfits" vehicles again. I thought surely by now some one would have found some more pictures but I guess thats it.
Can you ID the SF HMMWV with its rear to the camera? Is it a M1114 conversion vehicle or an older rig with enhanced door armor? You didn't happen to get a picture of that SF vehicle did you?
The SF HMMWV I'm working on now I'd like to have lots of radios a satcom and GPS and wires everywhere, hence the interest in the radio stuff lately and I'm still a bit confused by it all. My new build will be a 1114.
Thanks for the input, good to hear from you again.
Bill

William, the truck about to go in the water does have 2 sincgars anteenas attached. Below is a picture from the other discussion on M1114's and you can see that it has two complete sincgars anteenas on the back and another one that has the top half missing. By this picture I would assume that there are 3 singcars inside this vehicle. Not all vehicles have the Tacsat, out of our 15 trucks in A-stan only 4 had a tacsat/satcom in them. With the tacsat it is able to talk to someone much further away than the singcars. I'm not sure if the all SF vehicles have the tacsat/satcom installed in them. Hope this helps. By the way there is a "new" radio that is out and has been around since atleast the early 2000's that is slowly replacing the sincgars. Called the "ASIP" or technically as the RT-1523E it is half the size but uses the same mount and anteena. Hope this doesnt cause any confusion.

Jeremy
Thanks for illustrating that. I would have assumed the short aerial was a specific antenna for a specific radio. In the picture I posted in "M1114" the passenger is working on a silver devise, do you recognize it? Not an MP3 player is it..;0) I'll put this image up again here.

I just did a quick search for the new(er) radio system, no confusion because what I'm modeling in SINCGARS now, but in the near future I'll be moving onto the Baggy Pants Boys and then I hope to tackle some well lets not get ahead of myself. The new radio is filed away for future projects.
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_electronics_sincgars_asip.php
I still have a half finished Unimog and a Bison that needs help.
Knowing what you do, do you recognize what's going on in this models radio department?

Did you ever find that picture of the HMMWV with the camo on it ??
Best
Bill

Circled red contains what looks to be two satcom/tacsat's. Looks like they are held in blace with bungee cord, which is what we used to hold our's in place. Circled blue contains two sincgars radios in the proper mount that runs of power provided from the truck. Circled white is the GPS and the other thing circled has me clueless. As to the other picture you posted, I'm not sure what the guy is holding. Do you know if this picture is acredited to Army SF or possibly seals or air force special ops? If you look on the guys left breast pocket there is what appears to be a patch worn often by Air force personnel. This guy is possibly an airforce combat controller attached to an SF team responsible for calling in airstrikes.

Jeremy
The item circled in white could that be a digital SINCGARS and the other two are analog SINCGARS??
These are two other images of the same vehicle. Unfortunately the fellow with the machine isn't in any of the other pictures. I will try to find out more about the images which I found on Flickr I believe. In the same grouping there were images of the big FMTV mother ship and it looked like these guys are going cross country in a big way. This first picture is of one of the lads with a sling shot. Can you tell what he is by the uniform? You've got a good eye Jeremy.

Here is the only picture I could find of the vehicles in iraq using camo netting, bad pic though. I have seen the pictures before of the army SF guy with the sling shot and the other pics you posted. I think they were on militaryphotos.net, but not positive. With the sincgars question I'm not really sure on that one. I'm going not check out militaryphotos.net, they have a HUGE selection of photos, if you look at all the user submitted ones, they will probably help you out alot.

Jeremy.
You are correct about Military.net. I had just re-found the same images. I found another antenna which I think is a GPS antenna, just wanted to check.

This image taken by the same person that took all those others as well.
Your detective work last time made for a nice detail for a diorama or model that included the details of the USAF guy along with the SF guys, those detail are lost on most non military types, thanks for the insight.
This isn't one of your photos is it?
I'm heading over to Military >net to check out the user submitted archives.
Thanks Jeremy.

Ues... USAF are serving right along side Army guys. My (future) Brother in law is a Refuler in the USAF... he did a Tour out there and was out w/ the Army on Convoy duty................

The antenna several posts back belongs to a PISS-5. The top portion is the actual antenna, the lower portion is nothing more than a reflector to increase gain. This radio pretty much obviates the need for all of the others.
Read here:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.defense-update.com/images/psc5d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.defense-update.com/products/p/psc5d.htm&h=255&w=200&sz=19&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=NbWqtZ-0HTAehM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpsc-5%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

18Bravo thanks for that ID.(Edit) According to your link the top system is the Spitfire? And the others?
I have heard a rumor that a certain after market company is going to release a set with the Spitfire included. "prc104,prc117,psc5 spitfire,prc113 a notebook,a Canon camera,blue force tracker,tacter31a,eplrs and lots more. will be released in september."




These photos courtesy of Jan Goos, many thanks.

Thanks for breathing new life into this languishing thread 18Bravo.

Bill
After seeing your amazing LRDG diorama in another tread I'm really looking forward to see what you can make out of the Humvee. Have you started any projects yet?

Erik

Erik
Thanks for the kind words. I have too many projects on the go! I have an SAS Unimog 2/3rds done, the wheels are causing me trouble. I have a 1/4 done Canadian Bison which got put away for a while. I have a Challenger 1 finished except the base but I'm interested in an Afghanistan HMMWV diorama right now.
I'm not going to tell you how many HMMWV kits I have piled up!
Have you seen my Land Rover Pinkie called "Oman" in the Photo section under current Campaigns / Special Forces section?
Before I had the internet I had to guess more, now I take twice as long because I know there is a photo some where that shows the detail I'm looking for! But it is as much about the hunt isn't it. I look forward to sitting at my model table again.
And what about you?
Bill

Nice Landy Bill! I have the AA SAS Land Rover in the debarkation zone myself. Other than that it is pretty much like you. Too many projects and not enough time. Since I have served in Afghanistan I have an interest in the vehicles used by ISAF and OEF and some day I will build this one


MB 290 with sand tyres, front and rear machinegun (MG -3), top mounted M2 machinegun, night vision equipment, winch and smoke dischargers. Patroled the outskirts of Kabul with this one in 2003.

Erik

Erik
What make of vehicle is this one? It certainly looks exotic. Have you done a walk around on it yet? What is the green devise on the hood between the wipers? You must have seen some incedible country over there? You must have run across some "other "interesting vehicles with the ISAF too?
I have "a few" land rovers in the lower drawer. I would own a real one myself if Canada would relax the safety requirements for imports! I'm a bit intimidated by the AA kits but they will definitely make for an interesting diorama.
I checked out your builds and they are very impressive, what have you got on the bench right now??
Thanks for sharing the photo.
Bill

Sorry for butting in, have been reading the thread with interest, although I am not a modern era modeller I do still have an interest in whats out there.

That vehicle is a Mercedes G-Wagen, that said I've not seen one like that before, more often they are owned by rap musicians who whack huge chrome rims on them....

Mark is right, it is the G-wagen. We call them MB (short for Mercedes Benz). This vehicle were custom built by our base repair shop for Norwegian Special Forces in 2002 and later used by my old unit when we deployed to Kabul in 2003. It was manned by a tank platoon since we did not bring Leopards to Kabul. In my company we had six of this vehicle with four in the tank platoon, one for the Coy commander and one for the XO. They were mainly used for patrolling the area outside Kabul. The Green devise is the machinegun mount for the vehicle commander. I think it is of German origin. Here is a pic of me blasting away on the firing range.



The .50 M2 is really easy to operate from this vehicle with a very good sight and soft mount


When they were used by the Special Forces they were a part of OEF and rigged a bit different. Since we often drove in heavy traffic we removed the water can racks on both side to make the vehicle easier to manouvre in downtown Kabul. There are not many pics of the vehicle during this periode on the net, but i found one on militaryphotos.net.


Sorry Bill, I did not shoot a walkaround, too busy doing Army stuff... Usually I stepped in as a rear gunner if tank platoon was a man short due to leave or injury.
About incredible country... Kabul was very dirty and not a nice place to live because of the heavy polution.

Erik

can i have one of those i need it for a courtesy visit to verizon....i just got my bill

Or they are used by the Canadian Military too, I didn't recognize it. Top Gear did a great review of the non military version, many dollars!
Bill
Are there any kits of G Wagens out there?

Bill
I have only found it here. . It is an Austrian Puch copy, but from the pic it looks very similar to the G-Wagen.

Erik

PS. I guess the "devise" you referred to is the ammo box for the MG3. When I took the pic we did training with the MG mounted on a bipod.

I don't know if you have seen this site Bill. It has a lot of ISAF vehicles in the reference section.

Erik