Desert Patrol Vehicle
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The Desert Patrol Vehicle (DPV), formerly called the Fast Attack Vehicle (FAV), is a high-speed, lightly-armored sandrail-like vehicle first used in combat during the Gulf War in 1991. Due to their dash speed and off-road mobility, the DPVs were used extensively during Operation Desert Storm. The first U.S. forces to enter Kuwait City were U.S. Navy SEALs in DPVs. The DPV is currently operated only by SEAL Team THREE, the unit assigned to the Middle East.
The DPV was built by Chenowth Racing Products, Inc. in El Cajon, California. The DPV, powered by a 200 hp VW engine for a payload of 1500 lb / 680 kg, is capable of accelerating from 0 to 30 mph / 0 -50 km/h in only four seconds. The DPV can travel at speeds up to 80 mph /130 km/h. With its standard 21 gallon / 79.5 litre fuel tank, the DPV has a range of about 210 miles / 338 km. An optional fuel bladder can extend the range to over 1,000 miles / 1610 km.
The DPV is a variant of the Fast Attack Vehicle which was developed during the 1980s as part of the United States' Army's High Technology Light Division (9th Infantry Division). The HTLD was given carte blanche to develop doctrine, decide force structure, and design equipment by then Army Chief of Staff Edward C. Meyer. One of the pieces of equipment created was the Fast Attack Vehicle. Chenowth delivered 120 FAVs to the Army in 1981. Along with light off-road motorbikes, the FAV was intended to provide a highly mobile component to the mostly foot infantry unit.
The original tests used commercial dune buggies modified to carry weapons such as TOW missiles and recoilless rifles. The recoilless rifles still had enough recoil that they were abandoned (they tended to flip the light dune buggies). The TOW missiles had much greater success, but they violated existing Army TOW doctrine. The Army had determined that a TOW needed a 3 man team to operate it. The FAVs could only carry a two man crew and they seemed perfectly capable of operating the TOW, but this would have meant revisiting Army doctrine and possibly changing TOW deployment throughout the Army. Fort Benning decided to offer a "superior" FAV design that allowed a third crewman. This design was rejected by the HTLD team and was never produced.
Eventually, the FAVs were replaced by High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) in general military use which did not provide nearly the speed nor extreme off-road capabilities of the FAVs. Eventually, the FAVs were transferred to special forces use where it has been largely replaced by the LSV.
The basic weapons on a DPV consist of a heavy .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun, two lighter 7.62 mm M60 machine guns, and two AT4 anti-armor weapons. In some cases, the driver's M60 or the gunner's M2 is replaced with a 40 mm Mk 19 grenade launcher.
The United States Marines Corps also fielded a Fast Attack Vehicle. This was a completely separate piece of equipment based on the venerable M151 MUTT. This FAV stayed in use long after the fielding of the HMMWV because it could fit on Marine Corps helicopters while the wider HMMWV could not. In 1999, this FAV began to be replaced with the IFAV (Interim Fast Attack Vehicle) a version of the Mercedes-Benz MB 290 GD 1.5 ton truck.
Today, only two dozen are known to exist, all of which are privately owned.
[edit] In Fiction
The DPV has appeared in many games and movies.
- The DPV is used by SEALs in SOCOM 3.
- The DPV will appear in the upcoming Pandemic Studios game Mercenaries 2.
- The DPV features as the primary basic transport vehicle for the USMC in the PC game Battlefield 2.
- The DPV appears as the FAV in Novalogic's Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising and Delta Force: Xtreme.
- The DPV is featured in the Act of War RTS video game series, where it is known simply as "Buggy".
- The movies The Delta Force, starring Chuck Norris, and In the Army Now feature several FAVs.
- The DPV was also seen in Three Kings. It is referred to as a Chenowth. It is the vehicle used by PV2 Walter Wogaman, to ferry around, and is later stolen by Adriana Cruz
- The DPV appears in the computer game Command & Conquer, used by the Brotherhood of Nod and known as the "Nod Buggy".
- Tamiya produced a remote control car based on the DPV model number 58046.
Recently two DPVs were used by the Sector 7 team to transport the Allspark in the live-action film Transformers (2007). Accordingly, the toy line released alongside the movie used the DPV as the basis for the Autobot Landmine. It is implied on the toy's packaging that the Allspark granted the vehicle a Spark off-camera.
