Lightweight vehicle gun turret

a light-weight, gun-mounted technology, applied in the direction of gun mountings, weapon components, weapons, etc., can solve the problems of not being able to easily and quickly disconnect the turret and the machine gun from the disabled vehicle and re-mounted to another vehicl

US20050257680A1Inactive Publication Date: 2005-11-24RUSSELL DAVID M
3 Cites 29 Cited by

Patent Information

Authority / Receiving Office
US · United States
Current Assignee / Owner
Publication Date
2005-11-24
Estimated Expiration
Not applicable · inactive patent

Smart Images

  • Figure 1
    Figure 1
  • Figure 2
    Figure 2
  • Figure 3
    Figure 3
Patent Text Reader

Abstract

A vehicle gun turret that includes a circular or horseshoe-shaped track suspended and mounted over the roof or cab area of a lightweight military vehicle. The track includes three legs configured in a triangle designed to attach to the vehicle's windshield frame member and roll bar. Rolling over the track is a carriage that attaches to a gun holder that selectively attaches to a machine gun. The gun holder is attached to a rotating stem that fits into a vertical sleeve attached to the carriage. Clevis pins are used to attach to the machine gun to the gun holder and to attach the gun holder to the carriage so that the components may be manually and quickly assembled and disassembled.
Need to check novelty before this filing date? Find Prior Art

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This utility patent application is based on the provisional patent application (60 / 515,405) filed on Oct. 29, 2003.

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention:

[0003] The invention relates generally to the field of ordinance and in particular to the mounting of guns on motor vehicles.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art:

[0005] Lightweight vehicles are commonly used to transport soldiers in a combat area. Many of these vehicles are truck-like vehicles with open beds used to transport soldiers and cargo. Some of these vehicles have machine guns attached to large, relatively heavy turrets mounted on the top or back of the vehicle.

[0006] One drawback with turret gun mounts on motor vehicles used in the prior art is they occupy a large portion of the cargo space in the vehicle making the vehicle less useful for transporting soldiers and equipment. Another drawback is that when the vehicle is disabled, neither the turret nor the machine gun can be easily an...

Examples

Embodiment Construction

)

[0017] Shown in FIG. 1 is a gun turret 10 that includes a gun holder assembly 12 attached to a carriage 30 that rolls over a horizontally mounted track 60 mounted over the roof or cab area of a motor vehicle. The preferred embodiment, the gun holder assembly 12 is designed to be used with a M249 model machine gun 90, although it's dimensions could easily be modified to fit other types of guns or weapons.

[0018] As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the gun holder assembly 12 includes a saddle bracket 13 that includes two parallel, upward extending arm brackets 14, 16 attached to the opposite sides a perpendicularly aligned horizontal plate 18. Formed near the two opposite ends of the two arm brackets 14, 16 are two pairs of transversely aligned holes 15, 15′ and 17, 17′ designed to receive two clevis pins 80, 82. Attached to the bottom surface of the machine gun 90 are two downward extended gun brackets 20, 23. Formed on the gun brackets 20, 23 are two pairs of holes 21, 21′ and 24, 24′ that ...