The first position that I held in Ranger Battalion was light/heavy machine gunner. It was our job to become efficient with just about every light or heavy machine gun in our arsenal, including various grenade launchers. The majority of the time, we would carry our ammo in a small backpack and only feed the gun a 50-100 round belt that would hang out of the weapon.
Many times as a young machine gunner, I would wonder how awesome it would be to have the rounds feed directly from the pack and not worry about link breakage, snagging, etc. Well, that time has come! The Iron Man Ammunition Backpack!
This ammo backpack carries 500 rounds of freedom that feed directly from you back to the weapon, almost the same way the minigun feeds. Not only do I think this is an amazing advance in our war fighters today and in the future, but cutting down on the gun team, essentially freeing up one man, only makes that gun team more combat efficient/effective.
Photo courtesy of US Army
