It’s not every day you see a Ford Ranger with a machine gun mounted in the bed.
The Technical, a civilian patterned vehicle is without question the most important force multiplier in modern military history. Technicals have influenced how insurgencies, Special Forces & regular armies fight in the battle space. Technicals have been instrumental shaping the borders of the globe. The light gun truck reigns king of the battlefield, technicals provide fighters with agility, speed, payload, fuel efficiency, utility, & reliability. Poorly trained rag tag insurgents, pirates, rebels, terrorists and the next generation of freedom fighters have all utilized the humble Toyota pickup truck in manoeuvre warfare. Technical formations have proved that wars can be won on a budget, and whoever has the most money does not necessarily win the war. The Technical is so effective in warfare; modern militaries and spec ops have adopted the light truck for COIN operations because of its small footprint and easy logistics. Even Ford Global Fleet Sales offers a Light Tactical (Technical) Ford Ranger. The Technical has altered tactical manoeuvres and strategic doctrine. Technicals have become key tools used for conventional, guerrilla, & proxy warfare; indigenous force support and advise and assist missions. In the early run up to the first deployments in Afghanistan, US Special Forces purchased scores of Toyota Tacoma’s from showrooms in the continental USA. They added brush guards, roll bars, machine gun mounts, bumper winches, and antenna mounts; removed interior lighting, seatbelt alarms and door buzzers to make their improvised gun trucks quiet and tactical. The SF community found technicals to be so effective, that armouring companies reengineered the modest utility trucks, with hidden up armour, bulletproof glass,& run flat tires, features that come standard in expensive military pattern vehicle.
Unlike purpose-built military vehicles that require specialized, expensive parts and complex maintenance routines, technicals are based on vehicles that can be purchased locally and serviced at any Jiffy Lube (or its third-world equivalent). Their weapon components are bolted or welded in place, so they can just as easily be removed and exchanged. And if the vehicle is damaged in combat, repairing or replacing it is a matter of tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands.
Arizona-based weapon manufacturer Dillon Aero recognized the merits of the Technical but wanted to put their own spin on it. The Dillon team purchased this 2021 Ford Ranger and equipped it with the company’s Multi-Mission Capable (MMC) system, which is a modular, power-operated turret that can accept a wide variety of weapons. The compatibility list includes M240 and M60 medium machine guns, an M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun, MK19/MK47/H&K GMG automatic grenade launchers, the Russian PKM, and many others.
This Ford Ranger features Dillon Aero’s M134D minigun which fires an impressive 3,000 rounds of 7.62 NATO per minute. That’s 50 rounds per second, or about four times the rate of fire of an M240.
There’s more to this truck than its armament. The Dillon Aero Ford Ranger provides mounts for field-deployable communication systems that allow for ground control of military and civilian aircraft. It also has a one-of-a-kind custom bed cage that supports the MMC system.
The front and rear bumpers are from Coastal Off-road. The front bumper contains four Baja Designs LED lights and a Warn winch; the rear bumper has a swing-out spare tire carrier and antenna mount. That antenna is connected to a Mil-spec PRC-113 VHF/UHF radio that sits atop the truck’s dash.
For improved off-road capability, the Ranger is equipped with ShrockWorks rock sliders, a Coastal Off-road skid plate, Fox remote-reservoir shocks, 17-inch Fifteen52 wheels, and 33-inch BFGoodrich all-terrain tires. Additionally, a Roam Adventure Co. awning was bolted onto the Prinsu roof rack, and Rotopax fuel canisters were installed on the bed cage.
This Ford Ranger represents the first project of its type for Dillon Aero, where the Special Projects division was given a blank slate to build upon.
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