Humvee Mobile Antenna Mount

Comtech Mobile Datacom, Fort Hood, Texas, has been contracted to install satellite phone antennas and Global Positioning Systems GPS in military vehicles, replacing the aging older technology. Most of this retrofit work is conducted in the field with limited access to machining equipment normally used during installation. The technicians use whatever tools are available to drill holes in a variety of materials such as aluminum, thin sheet metal, and armor plate. Drilling the armor plate is a difficult task. The crews use mostly high-speed steel HSS drill bits with rechargeable hand-held drills. It could take as many as 5-8 HSS drills to penetrate one hole in the armor. This is very time consuming and costly. Comtech Mobile Datacom contacted the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining NCDMM to provide a solution for their situation. NCDMM witnessed the procedure, techniques, and tooling used to do the installs. NCDMM analyzed the process and tooling and concluded that HSS tooling was not the answer for drilling through the different material types. NCDMM tested a variety of carbide drills that could penetrate the tough armor and found solutions for this issue. Rigidity for the carbide drills was supported with a mobile magnetic base drill press. A durable mobile tooling kit containing the tooling and equipment was assembled and can be shipped anywhere in the world for Comtech crews to install the communications hardware more efficiently.