New "Sandbags" for the Marines

[Priby]

McCurdy's Armor - Product Info

Marines in Afghanistan might soon scrap the sandbags. Instead, they’re snapping together armored walls that connect like Legos.

The Marines Corps in December spent $797,400 on 14 kits of McCurdy’s Armor, a patent-pending portable wall system. The service has already tested 25 kits.

The 6.5-foot-tall units can be assembled into bulletproof walls and forts — a process that can take less than an hour. This could save days’ worth of work digging trenches, laying sandbags and constructing outposts, according to the manufacturer, New Jersey-based Dynamic Defense Materials. “We’ve seen them used on everything from a podium to a guard tower to a long wall,” says Joe Dimond, a product specialist for the company.

The product offers protection from mortars, grenades, rockets and improvised explosive devices. It has aluminum frames that connect using steel pins, and the units can be arranged in several formations: U-shape, V-shape, J-shape or a wall.

It also has ballistic windows that open and close so service members can fire downrange. Four men can assemble one unit in less than 10 minutes without any tools or equipment, according to the company’s website.

“If you’re worried about armor-piercing rounds, you can also put on a second layer of armor,” Dimond says. “And you can add more if you’re going to be there a while.”

The product was named for Ryan S. McCurdy, a Marine who was killed in 2006 by insurgents in Iraq while pulling a wounded friend to safety.

Source

[Cheditor]

Looks a bit like a giant dolls house or something. Would like to see larger fortifications built with it.

[[R-DEV]Masaq]

O' course, the bigass problem with it I'd imagine is the fact you have to ship an additional bucketload of armour plate out to the combat zone, instead of nice light sacks that you can fill with whatever the local earth is.

Nice idea though - and can certainly imagine it'd be useful when combined with sandbags - use the bags on the outside to lessen the force of impacts, the armour plate on the inside as the stopgap.

[Shaihuluid]

Hmm... definately looks like an interesting idea, but we've yet to see in in action. It is going to be interesting how they figure out how to transport it... some kind of HMMWV add-on?

The marketing on their company site looks good... too good...

reminds me of a made-for-TV product advertisement

[Sidewinder Zulu]

I imagine this could also be useful for roadblocks and stuff.
Instead of putting down some concertina wire or something, the Marines could just load this out of the back of a Humvee and set up a nice bulletproof barrier across the street, which they could customize to it's dimensions, depending on how wide it is.
Very useful invention. Although it does look heavy.

[space]

Seems pointless and badly designed to me. They're may be a slight use for a VCP or other very temporary post, but surely they could just use a humvee for the same thing, and it would be better?

Anything more permanent, and Hesco would do the job without any of the problems that Masaq mentioned.

[gx]

I don't like it, Its going to make a loud ping when It gets hit, and that cant be demoralizing and help in causing the soldier to get down and become suppressed. Not to mention it can ricochet rounds off it, causing more of a problem. Also I would feel less safe in that during an rpg attack.

[[R-DEV]OkitaMakoto]

Tbh, as masaq hinted at, its gotta be pretty d*mn awesome and amazing to replace the time tried sandbag.

I mean, you have empty bags laying nice and neat, and most importantly FLAT when being transported. You get there and almost immediately have the resources to fill 'em and toss 'em up. When you move you either leave the cheap bags or empty 'em and lay them nice and flat again and head off.

These are bound to be bulky, rather expensive, and not something we'd just leave around once we're done.

I think the sandbag is just too fundamentally simple and effective to be ousted by something like this. Or its gonna take some new sci fi cheap puddy space material thats free and only needs a millimeter applied to any surface to stand a chance against ousting sandbags... Thats how I see it at least

Also:

Features

• McCurdy's Armor™ conserves manpower, equipment and
construction materials. (more so than sandbags? hmm...)
– Conserves resources because it is reused over and over (like the sand/earth and sandbags which probably end up cheaper than these legos anyway?)
– Quickly "de-constructed" so no infrastructure is left behind (Hmmm, so... an improvement over cheap sandbags we COULD leave if we wanted due to their low price and being just a bag?)
• Intuitive set up using universal components and common tools (Hmm... kinda like... sandbags?)
– Minimal training is required (like.. you guessed it... sandbags?)
– Every part is a one-man carry and interchangeable with
similar parts (sandbags by nature are one part that fits all other parts just like it)
• Includes transparent armor gun ports
– Quickly open into firing positions (hmmm, just build them into a sandbag wall[or hesco])

I honestly dont see any real advantage with this LEGO thing. I mean, Im no soldier, so who knows, but tbh it just seems like someone has a bit too much money to spend on random sh*t. Same happens with me when my grandma sends me two checks instead of one in a month.

[Hellbrawler]

Hehe, lego walls in PR

[Bamtoman]

I thought those huge rice bags with high-tech military sand could block a 50cal bullet or could not get the guy behind it get shot
Why need those?