The M1200 Armored Knight is an armored vehicle used by

forward observers in the U.S. military Forward observers in the U.S. military are artillery observers who carry the Military Occupational Specialty designator of ''13F'' in the United States Army and ''0861'' in the United States Marine Corps. They are officially called Joint Fire Supp ...

for precision targeting. Most of the Knights are used for operations in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The M1200 entered service in 2008.

Design

A fire support specialist looks through a laser range finder mounted atop an M1200 Knight armored vehicle

These are wheeled

armored vehicles Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or ...

, designed using the

M1117 The M1117 Guardian, also denoted Armored Security Vehicle (''ASV''), is an internal security vehicle based on the V-100 and V-150 Commando series of armored cars. It was developed in the late 1990s for service with the United States' Military ...

Guardian ASV as the base, that carry the equipment needed to quickly bring in

precision guided munitions A precision-guided munition (PGM, smart weapon, smart munition, smart bomb) is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the First Gul ...

and indirect artillery fire. According to the ''Strategy Page'' website; {{quote, The M1200 contains a laser designator, a laser range finder and GPS, plus radios and computers that take target position data and transmit it to distant artillery units, or bombers overhead, and get the firepower on the target within minutes. Previously, all this gear was mounted on an unarmored hummer.{{cite web, url=http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htart/articles/20091222.aspx, title=The Armored Knights Keep Coming, date=December 22, 2009, publisher=Strategy Page, accessdate=23 December 2009 The Armored Knight evolved from the desire to provide enhanced protection to the fire support teams who perform the targeting mission in high threat environments.

Development

The Knight was developed in an effort to offer an armored vehicle capable of keeping up with COLTs (Combat Observation and Lasing Teams). The previous FiST-V (Fire Support Team-Vehicle) employed by the COLTs was the M707 Knight (a stripped-down variant of the Humvee).

Specifications

*Standard Crew: Three *Combat Loaded Weight: Approximately 15 tons *Maximum Speed: 63 Mph *Cruising Range: 440 Miles *Targeting System: Fire Support Sensor System(FS3) *Target Location Accuracy: 1 Meter *Armament: 1

M240B The M240 – officially the Machine Gun, 7.62 mm, M240 – is the U.S. military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns that chamber the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by the ...

or 1

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...

Components

*FS3 Mounted Sensor *Targeting Station Control Panel *Mission Processor Unit *Inertial Navigation Unit *Global Positioning System Receiver *Power Distribution Unit *Stand Alone Computer Unit

References

External links