AT A COST of more than $300,000 and enough armour to stop a rocket-propelled grenade, the US President’s ground vehicle is a very resilient ride.
It looks like a Caddy STS on the outside but it is hiding many extras on the inside. It has everything the Secret Service needs to protect their boss from threats he could face while on the road.
In fact, it is so heavily armoured and filled with gear, agents call it The Beast.
When being driven, it is surrounded by a motorcade of up to 30 other vehicles, including local police, a decoy, a mobile communications centre, press, and other armed vehicles.
That is a big change from pre-John F Kennedy years when a desire to keep presidents close to their constituents meant open-roof vehicles, like this one.
After the assassination of JFK, the Secret Service gave itself a top-to-bottom policy overhaul, and open cars got the boot.
Now, the president’s vehicle is completely sealed to protect against biochemical attack.
The fuel tank is sealed with foam, so it won’t explode, even if it takes a direct hit.
An oxygen supply and fire-fighting equipment is kept in the boot.
Some reports even insist that a supply of blood in the president’s blood type is also kept in the trunk.
In the front, The Beast has a night-vision lens and tear-gas cannons.
A Remington shotgun is also kept on stand-by.
The run-flat tyres are Kevlar-enforced, puncture- and shred-resistant but if they do get punctured, the steel wheels will keep rolling. Amazing.
It’s the steel, aluminium, titanium and ceramic body that makes Caddy One a moving fortress.
There’s not a single weak spot in the car as the security layers are carefully installed, and several features overlap.
The car doors are as heavy as a 757 cabin door, with 8-inch thick armour plating. Wow.
The Secret Service won’t discuss details about the windows, but Discovery spoke to International Armoring Corporation, which makes similar windows. The first few glass layers can absorb a bullet, while the inner plastic layers essentially catch the bullet like a baseball glove.
This is what a window, with half the thickness, looks like from the outside after getting shot.
The back remains smooth, as shown by this guy here.
Mark Burton, the company’s CEO, also demonstrated that JFK probably would have survived if the car he was travelling in on 22 November 1963 had armoured windows.
All that protection does come at a cost though. Caddy One only gets up to a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour.
To sum up:
But in saying all that, it’s not infallible.
Remember what happened in Dublin?
YouTube Credit: BitBuzz2000
(All Images: Secrets of the Secret Service)
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