How prevalent are armed battle field ambulances? I have seen a photo of a Saudi National Guard V-150 ambulance with a M-2 .50cal on the roof. And there is a kit of an Iraqi armored ambulance with a DShK mounted. (The basis for the kit was captured and is at a US base museum. No gun but the mount is there.) And seems the Israelis use a RWS with an FN/MAG on their Achzarit. Are these anomalies or more common than most think?

SANG Ambulance. V-150 with parapet and .50 cal.

Captured YW-750 in UK.

Type 85 Armored Ambulance

The Geneva convention allows medical staff to carry light weapons for self defense. I would say that a heavy machine guns (like the 0.5 inch or heavier) are outside those limits.
The medical staff are protected but they are not allowed to use their weapons to adversely affect the enemy. A light weapon doesn't pose a significant threat so it can be explained as self defense, a heavy weapon is another matter.
However, if the enemy doesn't respect the Geneva convention (irregular forces, non-disciplined armed forces et.c) I could understand that ambulances are equipped with heavier weapons.

I Googled a little and found these images of armed ambulances and a LOT of un-armed ones

Caption: "PLA tracked armored ambulance makes debut. Notice the gun on the the ambulance"


"An Alvis Spartan battlefield ambulance of the Nigerian Army"


"EAGLE Protected Ambulance Vehicle, Germany"
In my opinion the MG on the Eagle above is on the very limit between light and heavy. It packs considerable firepower even if it is a small caliber weapon

If medevac absolutely needs protection by heavy firepower then it is just as easy to escort them by armed vehicles or maybe even airpower so there shouldn't really be any need to have armed medical transports.

/ Robin

All Australian Defence Force (ADF) combat vehicles employed in a health roll (particularly M113s and Bushmasters) are armed with at least a Mag 58 Light Support Weapon and all Health personnel (pers) are armed Army with F88 styer carbine RAAF & Navy with pistols, (in the case of combined army/RAAF ops RAAF pers are also armed with the F88 styer carbine). Over my time in the RAAF I was deployed with a number of joint US/Aust ops and found it interesting that health pers rarely carry an individual weapon.

I was a medic in the Army when I first started my military career back in the stone age, none of the ambulances we had were armed; medics carried m16's or .45's (or in the case of the cavalry unit I was with in Alaska the .38) to defend our patients. When I became an FMF Corpsman our purpose built ambulances didn't even have the provision for weapons mounts, in line companies in LAR units the -LOG variants were designated for CASEVAC; on my first tour in Iraq I carried a shotgun for a bit (until they got me an M16) and an M9. On my second tour I had an M4 and an M9, Corpsmen all were trained to fire the M240 and M2, and the docs with the Mobile Assault Platoons (MAP) also were trained to fire the Mk.19; the Marines did not however expect us to serve as primary gunners or crew members on the weapons but wanted us to be able to use the weapon if the need arose. It's not politically correct, but one of the most effective means of patient care is a high volume of outgoing fire so Doc can do his/her job.

Pretty much the US is only country that has elected to not arm our ambulances. It is allowed by the Geneva Convention for ambulances to be armed for self defense. The US military medical community has maintained that they are not an offensive force and thus does not carry mounted weapons. As John says above, medics are armed for self defense and to protect their patients, but they rely on escorts or other troops as their primary means of defense.

Here's a M577 ambulance in Vietnam fitted with a M60 machine gun on the generator housing :



full size

and a M113 fitted with a .50 Cal.



H.P.

I have no way of verifying this but I believe that M60 on the M577 is the trooper's sitting behind it.

Can't argue with the M113 mounted though.

I can't verify either, but the very same picture appears in Simon Dunstan's Vietnam Tracks : Armor in Battle 1945-75 and here's an excerpt from the caption : "The enemy frequently attacked "angel tracks" paying no heed to the prominent red crosses which became convenient RPG aiming points. In consequence, the red crosses were obliterated and many ambulances were armed for self-protection. Here an M577A1 Field Aid Station of 2/11 ACR provides medical support during a search-and-clear mission. January 1967"

On a side note, I've seen several other examples of similar M60 mounting on Vietnam M577's

H.P.

Canada also doesn't arm their Amb's

I've seen Canadian AMBs armed with a variety of weapons...

Here's a pic from 1984 in Germany showing a Canadian M113A1 armed with a .50 Cal.



Canadian Bison Ambulance mounting what looks to be a C9 LMG in Somalia.



New M113A3 TLAV Ambulance variant fitted with RWS.

The arming of ambulances is a sad reflection of dealing with enemies, both state and non-state, who are not signatories to the Geneva Convention and who do not hold with the principles enshrined therein. For these people there are no rules of war.
Those enemies who would replace the Red Cross with the Red Crescent for reasons of religious dogma might even see the Red Cross as a legitimate target in itself - as a symbol of a heretic or infidel religion.

So as long as we face enemies who would target casualties, medical personnel, vehicles and facilities without a second thought the arming of medical personnel and vehicles for self-defence is inevitable. While you might seek to always deploy ambulances with a force protection package in hostile areas where the Red Cross or Red Crescent might not be respected, having a completely defenceless ambulance is not necessarily sensible. It was a clear tactic of the Taliban to ambush patrols with the real purpose of drawing in a casevac convoy or airlift in order to target that.

learn something new everyday. Thanks Jason.

I second Ian's motion. All in favor? I did not know that armed ambulances were so wide spread. I knew the un-armed medic pretty much went out the window during the US involvement in Viet Nam. Doc with a .45. But as Peter said, it is a sign of the times. Of course no gun on the roof is much help when the IED is the preferred weapon.

Did the North Vietnamese arm their ambulances too? I've never seen a Vietnam War-era PAVN military ambulance; anyone know what they might have used, particularly during the Ho Chi Minh campaign?

From some of the pictures I have seen and people who was fighting for the Vietnamese Nationial Liberation Front(Viet Cong) who I have known and talked to personally have said that they most times used field stretchers.

Viet Cong, I don't think had anything much more mechanized than stretchers and water buffalo cart. I'd imagine NVA used what ever truck was handy.

Regardless of arming ambulances and medics and the disgusting tactics of many enemies, I'm sure that First World armies and signatories to the Convention will continue to abide by the rule that ambulances and medical personnel do not take offensive action and do not carry military supplies or military personnel not engaged in medical operations - which would include defensive FP.

IEDs can often result only in mobility kills. An immobile defenceless ambulance is a sitting duck and a candidate for kidnap and ransom or YouTube execution of the casualties and medics, so a defence weapon still makes sense. But gunners, RWS sensors and anyone reloading the RWS will be targeted with small arms so they may still become defenceless if help is not close at hand.

I'm tempted to suggest that the North Vietnamese didn't need to arm any ambulances they may have had because they knew that US and other allied forces would respect the Convention rather than face the disciplinary and public relations consequences. I'm equally tempted to suggest that NVA might not have had many (any?) dedicated ambulances and that casualties were probably backloaded on empty supply trucks.

The PAVN is said to have had BTR-152s, but I don't know if they got them before or after 1975. And the Soviets produced an ambulance variant, but I don't know if the North Vietnamese ever got any or not.