Presidential motorcade defense

[Jenn]

Comment: Have you ever wondered what all those extra black SUVs are in
the Presidential or VIP motorcades? You know, the ones with severely tinted
windows. The SUV's that no one gets in or out. Maybe they are unmarked
'black helicopters' on four wheels...Well, wonder no more. They have a 6
barreled 7.62 mm mini gun. They fire over 4,000 rounds per minute. The
wipers need to be run to remove spent casings when the weapon is firing.
This video is from the company that makes this happen. The vehicle is also
armor plated. Listen to this baby go off.

[JoeBentley]

I'll try to find a hard link to site to, but I'm pretty sure this is accurate. Although obviously the Secret Service is tight lipped about what kind of firepower they have, and I'm sure they carry different stuff depending on different situations, I do remember reading about this armored, minigun packing SUV in the legitimate press.

ETA: From CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-9761803-42.html
And Wired: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/01/motorcade-suvs/

[Lainie]

The first line of Joe's Cnet link reads:

Need to take out a book depository?

Wrong, but funny.

ETA: I still remember being shocked, after the Reagan assassination attempt, to learn (from news photos) that Secret Service agents carried submachine guns.

[GenYus234]

The Wired article seems to be speculation as they said the motorcade "could" have one. And I can't find confirmation that England asked the Secret Service to leave it at home like the CNet article says.

[JoeBentley]

Yeah I still can't find a hard actual site that explains in detail, but I swear I remember seeing them, round about the time the new Presidential Limo debuted.

[GenYus234]

I assume you mean you remember seeing them as part of a Presidential motorcade? Because they do exist and are sold for security uses (overseas?). Both Mythbusters and Monster Garage have used them. The question is if they are/were bought or used by the Secret Service.

[jimmy101_again]

The first thing to realize is that the reason for multiple cars has as much to do with obscuring which car the pres is actually in as it does providing vehicles to carry doomsday like weapons. (A mini-gun in a city environment is pretty doomsday )

"Mini-gun" is a misleading name for the weapon. It is basically a modern Gatling gun and a single mini-gun spits out rounds at about the speed of 7 to 10 standard military heavy machine guns all firing at once.

If one of those SUV actually was carrying a mini-gun you can probably tell just by how low it sits on it's shocks. The weight of the ammo is pretty significant.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

The vehicles are real from what I have seen on a few TV shows that were talking about armored them. As for sales who may have bought one or just interested in buying, they were not saying anything.

I think they also said that each vehicle carried only a few seconds worth of ammo with out much detail about what a few seconds is. One must also remember with a mini-gun all you need is a fraction of a second to stop target.

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by Lainie

....ETA: I still remember being shocked, after the Reagan assassination attempt, to learn (from news photos) that Secret Service agents carried submachine guns.

I wish I could find that video, but I also remember being shocked by how many big guns just sprouted in seconds once Hinkley opened fire.

I went to see Reagan in Grand Rapids when he was campaigning for his second term. I got there very early, before Secret Service had cleared the area. They cleared, setup the metal detectors, and then had a meeting, in the safe area. When the all walked through the meal detectors after the meeting, the beeping was one long constant squeel.

[firefighter_raven]

Didn't the Mythbusters bring out a similar vehicle for their "Shooting Fish in a Barrel" show?

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by firefighter_raven

Didn't the Mythbusters bring out a similar vehicle for their "Shooting Fish in a Barrel" show?

They had a jeep with a mini-gun mounted on the roof for the "Cut a tree in half with a machine gun" myth.

[Troberg]

Wow, I wonder if they sell to the civilian market? One of those would even make it fun to go to the annual car inspection...

Originally Posted by jimmy101_again

If one of those SUV actually was carrying a mini-gun you can probably tell just by how low it sits on it's shocks. The weight of the ammo is pretty significant.

I'd assume that they rebuild the suspension to handle the weight of armament, armor and ammo. I doubt there many stock parts at all in those cars.

[Floater]

When Bush the younger visited Sweden my sister-in-law signed all work permits for the people involved (everyone in the entourage except Dubya himself, ca 2000 people). She commented that the secret service people were explicitly told that they were not allowed to carry weapons on Swedish soil, but nobody challenged them about it.

[Cyrano]

When I was part of the 2'500 Swiss soldiers mobilized to protect the Reagan/Gorbachev Geneva conference in 1985, my Anti-Aircraft unit was stationed in the garden of Reagan's residence (a lakeside mansion that was lent by Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan), the US Secret Service guys were armed to the teeth, too. They even had Stinger missiles.

One day, we were told not to react because a Swiss Television helo was about to fly low over the residence, but, due to a communication error, the Americans didn't know. They already had locked on the chopper (which was coming at treetop level with a guy holding a big camera - that could have been mistaken for a weapon - out of the open door) and were ready to launch when they got the orders at last.

I don't know if the TV guys ever realized how near they had been from being shot down in flames.

[firefighter_raven]

found it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd-MpXCMcIs

[rangerdog]

From WIKI

The (sic) M134 Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute), employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source. In popular culture, the term "Minigun" has come to refer to any externally-powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber, though the term is sometimes used to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration, regardless of power source and caliber. Specifically, minigun refers to a single weapon, originally produced by General Electric. The "Mini" of the name is in comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but larger shells, such as General Electric's earlier 20 mm M61 Vulcan.

I have fired this awsome weapon and was also an M61 and M134 mechanic.

[Hero_Mike]

Check out the article here about the SVI Raptor. Car and Driver magazine did this article years ago - I assume that car models change but the basic premise of the gun does not.

Note that the floor of the SUV is replaced with a steel grate which allows the shells to fall through it, including those which failed to fire and may "cook off" and fire later. Interesting.

[Troberg]

Originally Posted by Hero_Mike

Note that the floor of the SUV is replaced with a steel grate which allows the shells to fall through it, including those which failed to fire and may "cook off" and fire later. Interesting.

So, it's an easy target for mines?

[Don Enrico]

When you are able to place a mine on the route of the presidential motorcade, the car you want to take out is not the one carrying the minigun.

[SoCal80]

I'm not sure if the operator of the gun is constantly sitting crouched at the ready (as shown at 0:06), but if so then that has to be one of the most uncomfortable assignments in the motorcade.